Joe and Umbreon
by xjoedirtx
Summary: The story of Joe, his Umbreon, and his friends as they embark on a journey through the Hoenn region. Rated T for violence and language. Please read, review, and if you like it, tell your friends!
1. The Decision

**About five miles West of Littleroot Town was a small town by the name of Fresno. To the North and South were green forests that were home to dozens of kinds of Pokemon. To the West was the sea, and it seemed to always sparkle. Eastwards was the path to Littleroot Town, and around Spring is when it reaches its peak beauty. Flowers on either side of the road begin to bloom, and just off the path is a Berry farm, which around Springtime is in full bloom, and some plants are already growing fruit. Fresno is where I lived, and that's where my journey began.**

**My name is Joseph, and I love pokemon. I'm about 5'9", and I'm pretty thin for a boy my age, which is 16 by the way. Just in case you were wondering, I received my first pokemon when I was 10, but I didn't leave until my 16th**** birthday. I figured I'd better train my pokemon before I left for the gyms.**

**My starter pokemon was an Eevee. I got lucky when I picked her up, because Eevee are EXTREMELY rare around Hoenn. The day I went in to pick up my pokemon, Bill, the pokemon expert from Kanto, was at Professor Birch's lab, and he happened to have an Eevee with him. **

"**Wow," I exclaimed after seeing his Eevee. "That's a beautiful pokemon!"**

**Bill smiled and laughed. "Well of course, its an Eevee! They're known for their cuteness around the world, but they're also known for something else."**

"**What's that?"**

"**They can evolve into a pokemon of nearly any element."**

**Being new to pokemon, I didn't completely understand this, so I asked him about it. **

"**It means that Eevee can be a fire, water, electric, psychic, dark, ice, or grass type pokemon." he said. "I'll tell you what, you can take this Eevee, and decide for yourself what kind of pokemon you want it to evolve into."**

**I was shocked. "Really? But its your pokemon."**

"**Don't worry," he replied, "I've got plenty back home, you can have this one, really. I can see how much you like her, and I think she'll like you too."**

**When I walked over to her, she looked up and chirped her little cry.**

"**Eeeveee!"**

**She jumped up and tackled me to the ground, and started licking my face. Bill laughed at this.**

"**Just like I thought, she likes you. Go ahead and keep her, I'm sure you two will be friends for life."**

**I thanked Bill for her, and left for home. For the next six years, I trained my new pokemon so that she would be strong and fast.**

**Just after my 16****th**** birthday, I took my Eevee out to the woods to train. It was nighttime, her favorite time to be out, and mine as well. We went out far enough to be out of sight of the outer homes of Fresno, and began to train against the wild pokemon there. **

**After we beat our fourth Poocheyena, I heard a rustling in the bushes, and so did my Eevee. **

"**Eevee," I ordered, "quick attack, go!"**

**Eevee charged full speed into the bush, and I heard a grunt from whatever was there. **

**I rushed over to check things out, and got a shock when I saw who was there. It was a girl my age from town. She had pitch black hair, and was just a bit shorter than me. It was my best friend Steph.**

"**Steph," I exclaimed, "what are you doing out here? You scared the crap out of me!"**

"**Ouch!" she cried. "What are you doing out here, Joe? And why are you making Eevee attack your best friend!?"**

**She held her hand out for me to help her up, and I pulled her to her feet. "One, I'm out here training Eevee, and two, I didn't know it was you, I thought it was another pokemon." **

"**Well, you shouldn't just jump and attack someone like that, Joe, that hurt."**

**I gave her a quick hug. "Okay Steph, I'll be more careful next time, haha." Eevee trotted over to her leg and began rubbing her cheek against Steph's leg.**

"**Since you're already out here training," she said with a quick smile, "you wanna have a quick battle?"**

**My lips stretched into a smile before I could even think about it.**

"**Of course!" I blurted. "I'd love a battle! Eevee's beaten just about every trainer around here, and I'd love to see her take your pokemon down!"**

**Her dark brown eyes glinted in the moonlight. I could tell she'd been wanting to do this for awhile, but she'd been busy training her own pokemon since the day she received it.**

"**Okay Joe, lets do this! Mudkip, go!!"**

**Steph's Mudkip came out of his poke ball, and called out to my Eevee. She immediately took a friendly, yet defensive stance.**

"**Eevee," I called, "quick attack, go!"**

**Eevee shot off like a rocket. She was so fast, I couldn't even see her for a second. She was so fast, it surprised me when Mudkip dodged the move.**

"**Mudkip, mud shot!"**

**Steph's pokemon kicked up a lump of mud with its tail, and it barely missed Eevee. She responded with another quick attack, and hit her mark. Mudkip lifted a foot off the ground, and came to a skidding halt on its side. Steph's face quickly turned to a pained grimace.**

"**Come on Mudkip, get up!" **

**Mudkip slowly got to his feet, but it wasn't fast enough.**

"**Eevee," I shouted, "hit him with a tackle!"**

**Eevee ran over to Mudkip and tackled him. Mudkip went back first into a bush, and quietly called out. Steph, with a short gasp, ran over to him. She picked him up in her arms, and quietly tried to calm him.**

"**Steph," I said, "is he okay? Is he hurt? I didn't mean to hurt him too badly!"**

**She looked over at me and smiled, "Don't worry, he'll be fine. He just needs a rest. Get back in your ball, Mudkip." And with that she put him back in his poke ball. Behind me, I heard Eevee make a small cry, and I turned around just in time to see it. Although, if I hadn't turned at that moment, I'm sure I still would've seen the light coming from her. She was evolving!**

**For a few seconds, she shined a brilliant pure white. After a couple seconds, she began to grow in size, just a few inches, but still noticeable. Finally, the light began to fade, and what resulted was a pure black pokemon with gold rings on its ears, tail, legs, and forehead.**

"**Brehh, On?" it uttered. **

"**Umbreon!" I shouted. "I can't believe it, she's an Umbreon!" I quickly walked over to her and got down on one knee. "Umbreon, I can't believe it!" She whispered her cry, and tackled me and started licking my face, just like she had when I first received her. I couldn't help laughing.**

"**Haha, I love you too, Umbreon." I looked over at Steph.**

"**Hey Steph," I expressed, "I think we're ready to head out now. I'll need a couple days to get my stuff together, but do you want to come with me?"**

"**I don't know," she contested, "I'm not sure if I should go when my boyfriend is here."**

"**Aww, come on!" I countered. "Ron can come with us too! Besides, his Teddiursa needs TONS of training. And you could train your Mudkip too!"**

**She was quiet for a second, pondering the choice. Finally, she answered. "Okay, I'll do it! Let me go tell Ron to pack some of his stuff, and I'll let my mom know! Its going to be so much fun! I'll talk to you later, okay?!"**

**And with that, she went off towards the town. I stayed in the clearing with Umbreon for a few more minutes. I sat down next to her, arms behind me for support, and she curled up next to me with her tail wagging in the air.**

"**Well Umbreon," I remarked, "this is what we've been training for. You can finally show off how much you've grown. I can't wait to see what'll happen with us. I'm so glad you've evolved, too. I think you're ready to take on the gym leaders. Do you think you're ready?"**

**Umbreon looked up at me with a look of complete innocence, and called out, "Bree-On!"**

"**That's good enough for me. Come on, we need to get home and get some rest. I can't wait for tomorrow!"**

**We got up and walked back to the house. When we arrived, I let my mom know that we were heading out In the morning, and at first she was worried. After some convincing, however, she agreed that I should go out, and I went to bed. Before I fell asleep, I looked over at Umbreon, who was out like a light next to me. **

"**Good night Umbreon," I whispered. "The rest of our journey will be amazing, I can't wait." **


	2. The Girl From Littleroot Town

The next day my alarm clock went off late. I'd set it for 7:30 AM, but instead it went off at 8:30, so I was in a huge rush to get packed. I still couldn't comprehend everything: I was finally going on my journey. All I could think about for the last 6 years was becoming a Pokemon master, and this was my opportunity. After I finished packing, I woke up Umbreon.

"Umbreon, time to get up, we've gotta go!"

Umbreon looked up at me, still half asleep, and let out a small cry. Then she stood up and shook herself off, trying to wake herself up.

"Bree!" she called, and trotted over to the door. I followed her out, saying goodbye to my mom, and headed to Steph's house.

When I got there, she was almost done packing, and Ron, her boyfriend, was sitting in the living room. His backpack was next to him on the couch, and his rolled up sleeping bag was strapped on top. Ron is kind of tall, just a bit shorter than me, and with short black hair.

"Ron!" I called out. "What's up, man? Are you ready to go!?"

He got up and came over to shake my hand. "Yeah," he answered, "I'm, ready to go, and so is Poocheyena."

"Poocheyena?" I asked, confused. "I thought you had a Teddiursa?"

"Yeah, I did, but I traded my cousin. I wanted something cool, and Poocheyena is a lot cooler than Teddiursa."

"No its not," I contested, "Teddiursa is better. It can evolve into an Ursaring, which is WAY cooler than any Poocheyena."

Ron made a short laugh, and said "Whatever Joe, it was my decision, and I stand by it."

"Whatever dude, is Steph ready?"

At that moment, she came down the stairs with her bag ready in her hand. "I'm ready now, lets go!" When she got to the bottom, she went over to Ron and kissed him. I faked disgust at it, sticking my tongue out.

"Aww, that's sick guys, come on!" I said. "Just get a room already."

"What, jealous?" they both asked at the same time, which made me laugh.

"Whatever guys, lets get going. I want to be in Oldale Town before nightfall, lets get going!" They both nodded and we left the house.

The road to Littleroot was just as beautiful as it always was around this time of year. Umbreon walked next to me, occasionally drifting to the side of the road to smell the flowers, or to investigate some small pokemon in the bushes. She was always curious, and hated being in her poke ball. Steph walked to my right, and Ron was on my left. Around 10:00, we came up on the berry farm. Steph wanted to stop by to buy some, so we decided to take a little break.

While Steph was talking to the old lady who owned the little shop where they sold them, Ron and I were talking pokemon.

"Hey Ron," I said, "can I see your new pokemon?"

He nodded, and pulled out a poke ball. "Poocheyena, come on out!"

A small dog-like pokemon came out of the ball. It was grey, but it had black paws and the fur around its face was black too. Ron said it was a boy, and it took a quick liking to my Umbreon. She wasn't having any of that, though.

"Brehh!" she called out when he tried to get near her. She jumped up and took a fighting stance, and Poochyena whimpered and ran back to Ron. I fell down laughing

"Haha, Ron, looks like you got the short end of the trade!"

"Whatever. My Poochyena can take your Umbreon any day in a battle, just remember that."

"Is that a challenge?" I asked with a smile on my face.

"Yeah, maybe it is!" Ron came back. "Your Umbreon versus my Poochyena, right here right now!"

"Alright then, lets go. Umbreon, pursuit, go!"

Umbreon jumped and hit Poochyena right in the side. He rolled over for a bit, then stopped and got up to his feel. Umbreon then did a sideways flip, and hit him with her back end, putting him back on the ground.

"Oh come on you guys!" Steph had just came back from getting the berries, and saw the fight. "Why are you two fighting?" "Hey, he challenged me!" I answered. "I'm just trying to have some fun here."

"Poochyena, get some rest." Ron put Poochyena back in his poke ball and attached it to his belt. "Well Steph, get anything good?"

"Yeah," she replied, "I got some Oran berries, Cheri berries, and a couple pretty rare Sitrus and Bluk berries." We split them up among ourselves and continued along the road.

Around 2:00, we passed through Littleroot town, and paid a little visit to Professor Birch. I tried to get us moving again, but Ron and Steph decided to stay for lunch. We found a small pizza parlor, so we ate there.

When we were about to leave, the most beautiful girl I'd seen in my life walked in. She was short, just barely even with Steph, but the way she carried herself made her look like she wasn't the "look at me, look at me" type, which I'd always loved in a girl. Her hair came down a few inches past her shoulders, and it was this amazing dark-red color that perfectly accentuated her dark brown eyes. The second I saw her I couldn't help but stare.

I could hear Steph talking, but I didn't hear a word she said. Finally, just before the girl looked over at us, Steph snapped me back to reality with a tap on the head.

"Hey, what was that for!" I exclaimed

"That's for not paying attention!" she said. "I was just saying that we need to pick up some poke balls and food when we get to Oldale Town. Ron said that the distance between Oldale town and Petalburg City is long enough that we'll have to camp out a couple times, so we're gonna have to cook then, okay?"

I just nodded and turned my gaze back to the girl. It looked like she was here to meet some friends, because she was just sitting there by herself, looking around every few seconds. "Yeah, sure, whatever you say."

Steph finally picked up on where my attention was, and tapped me on the shoulder. I looked over at her.

"Go talk to her!" she said.

I'd considered it, but I'd also considered that she most likely had a boyfriend, whom she was probably waiting for. But, against all better judgment, I stood up and casually walked over to her. When I got to her table, she noticed me and smiled.

"Hello," I said.

"Hello," she responded.

"I don't normally do this, but do you mind if I sit?"

"Not at all," she said with a smile. "My name's Alice, what's yours?"

Surprised at how willing she was to let me talk to her, I nearly began to stutter. I had to take a second to calm down, then I answered, "I'm Joe."

"Well Joe, we rarely get new faces around here, and I've never seen you before. Did you just move here?"

"No, I'm just passing through with some friends. I'm out to get all the gym badges and become a pokemon master." This made her chuckle a bit, so I quickly added "yeah, I know, sounds kinda cheesy, doesn't it?"

"Actually, it sounds like a lot of fun." She gave a quick laugh. "Until recently, I'd given up my plans to travel the world."

"How come?" I asked. Just as she opened her mouth to answer, a tall, fair skinned boy came in and began walking towards us, staring first at Alice, then at me. He looked to be around 17, and he had 3 poke balls attached to his belt. I could tell he was a trainer, and I could also tell he was pissed off that I was talking to Alice. Steph and Ron noticed it too, and they looked worried.

Alice drank a bit of her soda, and answered "That's why."

The boy came to our table and began shouting at her. "Who is this! Is he your new boyfriend? Is that why you dumped me, you've got someone new already!"

Alice looked up at him and replied, "No, Stephen, he's not my boyfriend, and I dumped you because you're too controlling. I'm tired of your crap, and I'm tired of you. Get out of here before I make you get out!"

Stephen began to reply, but I cut him off. "Dude, the lady asked you to leave, so leave. I don't think you should piss her off."

He looked at me like he wanted to kill me, but then he seemed to calm down, he even laughed a little. "Oh yeah!? Who's going to make me, you, loser? Let me guess, you're just some kid who decided to travel the world, huh? Tell you what, if you can beat me in a battle, maybe I'll let you leave here without a couple broken bones."

Alice was about to speak, but I beat her to it. "You're on, tough guy. My Umbreon can take anything you've got. One on one, outside, lets go!"

As we began to walk outside, Steph and Ron came up to me

"Joe," Steph said, "What do you think you're doing!? You don't know this guy, he could really hurt you, and who's to say he won't really hurt Umbreon?!"

"Steph," I countered, "he challenged me, I can't back away from it now. Besides, this is a chance for me to really see if I'm ready for this."

She didn't agree with me, but she decided to let me go. Her, Ron, and Alice came outside. Stephen was waiting for me, with a poke ball already in his hand.

"Okay kid," he called out. "You wanna see what I've got, I'll show you. Go Vigoroth!!"

He threw the poke ball in his hand, and out came what looked like an overgrown monkey with razor sharp claws.

I took out Umbreon's poke ball and tossed it. "Umbreon, take him down, go!"

Umbreon came out of her ball and immediately readied herself for battle.

"Umbreon, pursuit, go!"

She took off and made to hit him, but he dodged at the last second.

"Vigoroth, slash!"

Vigoroth swung its wickedly curved claws at Umbreon and hit directly above her right hind leg. She cried out in pain and fell on the ground. Stephen let out the most arrogant laugh I'd ever heard and ordered Vigoroth to finish it.

"Umbreon, move out of the way!"

She jumped forward mere seconds before Vigoroth's claws would've hit her side. I ordered her to use quick attack, and she hit Vigoroth dead center in his stomach, knocking him flat to the ground. By now we'd drawn a small crowd to watch our battle. I heard chants of "Go Umbreon" and "Go Vigoroth", but I didn't care what the crowd wanted. I just wanted to win the fight.

"Umbreon, finish him with another quick attack!"

"Vigoroth, mega punch, go!"

Umbreon jumped right into the path of Vigoroth's punch. It hit her right in her face, and she flew through the air, landing on her side at least ten feet away. She couldn't get up to her feet. We'd lost. Not only had we lost, but I also blew my chance to impress Alice. But at for the moment I was worried more about Umbreon than the girl, and I made to run to her side, but I was blindsided by Vigoroth's huge shoulder.

"Hey, what the hell, dude!?" I shouted.

"Vigoroth, teach this loser why you don't mess with us! Mega punch, go!"

All I could see was his fist coming straight for my face, but then I heard Alice's beautiful voice, like bells, or something. She was saying something about a Zangoose.

"Zangoose, crush claw!"

Suddenly a pokemon that looked a bit like an overgrown cat with huge claws struck Vigoroth with immense force. He hit the ground so hard it kicked up a small cloud of dust. Stephen was immensely shocked.

"Alice, why did you do that!?"

She turned her attention to me to see if I was alright. I told her I was alright and got up to my feet. Then she looked over at Stephen. "You can go to hell, Stephen. I'm done with you. I'm leaving with Joe and his friends. If you have a problem with that, take it up with Zangoose, I'm sure she'd be willing to put you in your place."

His face twisted into what looked like a mix of anger and submission. "Grr, fine, do what you want. But this isn't over, not by a long shot!. Vigoroth, lets go, come on!" He put him back into the poke ball and left in a hurry.

"Alice, thank you, but now he's going to think you're really gone with us. Do you think that's a good idea?"

She looked a bit taken back. "Well, no, not since I decided to travel with you guys. But if you don't want me to…"

I quickly gathered myself and said "No, of course, you can come with us, I don't have a problem with it. Steph, Ron, is that okay with you guys?"

They looked at each other, and both nodded to me.

"Alright then, its settled. Alice, welcome to the group."

She lit up and began to jump up and down and laugh. "Oh, thank you! You won't regret it! I'll help out with what you guys need me to, just let me go pack my stuff real quick, okay!?"

"Sure," I said. "Go get your stuff, we'll wait for you at the Pokemon Center. See you in a bit."

Okay," she replied. "I'll try to hurry up, thank you SO much. I'm so glad to be rid of that jerk and his bull. I'll see you guys soon!"

Then, out of nowhere, she kissed me on the cheek and ran off to her house. Mostly out of shock, I sat down on a wooden bench nearby. Steph came up and sat next to me. "Joe, are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, we don't even know this girl. For all we know she could be some total freak and try to rob us. And didn't that Stephen guy say he'd get you back? What are you going to do if he follows us?"

I laid my head back against the bench. "Well, I think it's a good idea to have her along with us. That Zangoose could come in handy in a pinch, and I don't think we have to worry about Stephen. Umbreon almost had him down. I have total confidence that she can take him next time."

"Alright," she said, "but if she gets crazy with us I'm going to put her in her place, just to let you know. Lets get to the Pokemon Center. I'm sure Umbreon needs some healing after that fight."

"Yeah, I think you're right, lets go wait there."

A little while later Alice showed up with her stuff, and we headed out from there. In my opinion, she seemed like a nice girl, and this would allow me to get to know her better. I just hoped we would get to Oldale town by nightfall like I'd originally planned. I didn't want to be caught out on the road at night.


	3. The Biker Gang

When we left Littleroot Town, the sun was beginning to come down. Great, I wanted to show off back there in that battle, and now we were going to be spending the night in the woods. I wanted to be in Oldale Town before dark so that we didn't have to run the risk of running into danger, but here we were, stuck out in the dark. Oh well, I thought, its kinda my fault anyways.

I offered to go find some wood for a campfire, and Alice wanted to go with me. I said it was okay, and we headed out. Umbreon, like always, followed at my side.

It wasn't too dark at that moment, but the sun was almost down, and soon there would only be moonlight, so I wanted to get as much firewood as I could before dark. Alice seemed to be able to carry enough on her own, but she did seem a little clumsy. She would drop a stick or two every now and then, and when she tried to pick it up, she crouched down and touched the bottom of her skirt to the dirt and became visibly frustrated. I offered to help her.

"No," she refused, "I can do it myself, thanks."

"Are you sure?" I asked. "If you need me take some of it off your hands, I'll do it. Its not like you have to carry a lot." My arms were pretty full as it was, but I didn't mind helping her out. She seemed pretty adamant about it, though.

"Joe, I can take care of myself, but thank you for offering. By the way, I forgot to thank you for sticking up for me back in town. Stephen just doesn't know how to take rejection very well."

I smiled at her. "That was no problem. I'll battle a guy just for fun. I want Umbreon to get as strong as she can. But he seemed like a total jerk, and I can't stand guys who don't take no for an answer. Not to mention I wanted to impress you, but that obviously failed."

She let out a small chuckle at that. "Don't worry about impressing me, just the fact that you challenged him got me a bit interested. Besides, if you hadn't, I would've just done it anyways with Zangoose."

While we were chatting, Umbreon explored the woods nearby. That's when we heard the yells.

"What was that?" Alice asked, worried.

I dropped the sticks in my arms and called Umbreon back to me. "That sounded like Steph, lets go!" We ran back towards the camp.

When we got there, Mudkip and Poochyena were on the ground, obviously hurt. Ron and Steph were next to them, and they looked terrified.

"What happened here!?" I asked.

Ron was the first to answer, Steph was busy tending to their pokemon. "These three guys on dirt bikes came up from the path. They told us to give up our stuff, but we said no, so they attacked us. Poochyena and Mudkip beat down two of their pokemon, but the third had a big snake-like pokemon, I think he said it was a seviper, and it completely owned ours. I've never seen anything as powerful as that pokemon's poison tail attack."

"Did they take anything?" I asked

"Yeah," Steph replied. "They took the money that you had, I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it," I said. "In the morning we'll get to Oldale Town and ask around. Maybe the townspeople will know something about it. Lets just all get some rest."

Alice stayed at the camp with her Zangoose just in case they came back while I went to get the firewood we left behind. We set up the campfire, and after a couple hours everyone fell asleep.

In the morning, we packed up camp and headed for Oldale Town. It took us about 2 hours, but we made it and got breakfast in town. We talked about what to do about the robbers from last night. Ron and I wanted to look for them, but Steph and Alice wanted to just continue on to Petalburg City. After half an hour of debate, we decided to do a bit of investigating to see what we could find. If we didn't find anything by 1:00, we would leave for Petalburg. We split up, me and Alice and Ron and Steph.

It was almost noon when we finally got something good. Alice and I had been sitting in the park, when we spotted 3 guys sitting on some bikes just thirty feet away. After a bit of convincing, Alice finally agreed to come with me to confront them.

The guys all had on typical leather jackets and jeans. The one on the left had really long, greasy black hair, and was just some lanky-looking teenager. The guy on the right had short brown hair, and seemed to be the scrapper of the gang from the scars on his knuckles and face. The third one, the one in the middle, seemed like the leader. He was tall and a bit bulky, but he had a kind of calmness to him that was very leader-like. I talked to him directly.

"Hey," I asked, "were you guys in the woods south of town last night?"

The scrapper looked up at me and answered, "Whats it to you?"

"I was talking to him, not you." I said, and pointed at the leader. "Were you guys out there last night?"

The scrapper suddenly jumped up off his bike and yelled out, "Hey, I suggest you back up before you get pounded, twerp! I'll put my foot so far down your throat you'll be tasting my boots for the next week!"

"Calm down, kid." Their leader spoke with a deep, arrogant voice. The scrapper looked like he wanted to contest his demand, but he sat back down. "Maybe we were and maybe we weren't, who's asking?"

Umbreon sat back on her haunches and glared at the leader. I considered a direct accusation, but I decided I didn't want to fight here, so I said , "My friends and I were robbed by three guys on bikes last night, and we were wondering if you knew anything about it."

The lanky kid looked through his hair at the leader, then at me, then back down to the ground. He seemed nervous, scared even. The leader got up off his bike and looked down at me. He was tall, very tall, and a bit scary. "Yeah, we jacked some money off a couple lovebirds in the woods last night. Are you telling me you were with those two losers?"

Alice whispered in my ear if she should call Steph and Ron, and I nodded. She took out her poke gear and called Steph, telling her to come to the park. "Yeah, I was." I said back to the leader. "The money you took was mine, and I'd like it back."

He laughed, a deep, hearty laugh that was mirrored by the scrapper. The lanky kid just sat there, fear still on his face. "You ain't getting it back, kid. The money's mine, and there ain't nothing you can do about it!"

"How about a battle?" I questioned. "Me and my friend here against your buddies, then me against you. Winner takes the money."

He laughed again. This time a bit of spit flew into my face. I wiped it off with the sleeve of my shirt. "Kid, I like the way you think, but there's no way you can take my boys here, let alone my seviper. But a challenge is a challenge, lets do this!"

Alice tapped on my shoulder. "Joe, are you sure you know what you're getting us into?"

I smiled at her. "Of course. If Mudkip and Poochyena can take these two punks, I'm sure we can. Its just that seviper I'm worried about. We're gonna have to work together, okay?"

She nodded, and released Zangoose from her poke ball. The lanky kid and the scrapper looked at each other, nodded, and let out their pokemon. We were up against a nincada and a taillow. No problem, I thought, and ordered the first attack.

"Umbreon, hit taillow with a quick attack!"

"Zangoose," called Alice, "use slash on nincada, go!"

Umbreon and Zangoose rushed to their targets. The lanky kid ordered taillow to dodge, but it wasn't fast enough for Umbreon. She hit it with enough force to knock it back past the trainer and straight into a tree, knocking it unconscious. The scrapper's nincada dug a hole in the ground, and got into it just in time to dodge Zangoose's lethal claws. It popped up a few feet away, and began to quickly move towards Zangoose.

"Nincada," called the scrapper, "hit that sucker with leech life!"

Nincada dove for Zangoose, but was quickly knocked back down when he countered with fury swipes. It was down for good.

Both trainers called their pokemon back into their balls and retreated. The leader stepped up and took out his poke ball. "Well," he said, his voice full of smugness, "you kids did better than I expected, no doubt about that. But neither of you can take this kind of power. Seviper, go!"

He tossed his poke ball, and out of it came a long, black and purple snake. It had huge, curved fangs, obviously poisonous. What I didn't expect was its tail. It culminated in what looked like a hunting knife shape, with serrations like little teeth on the inside edge. What I didn't expect was how furious Zangoose looked at the sight of seviper. Umbreon made to attack, but Zangoose quickly forced her back.

"Alice," I said, "what is Zangoose doing?"

"Zangoose and Seviper are mortal enemies," she replied. "When I found my Zangoose, she'd just been in an intense battle with a seviper, and barely came out on top. I had to nurse her back to health, and while I was doing that, I did some research. Ever since the beginning of time, Zangoose and seviper have hated each other, and seem to always be wanting to fight one another, if necessary preventing others to fight to do so."

The leader of the gang made the first move. "Seviper, poison fang, now!"

Seviper quickly slithered across the grass to Zangoose and sprang up. It almost bit her right in the throat, but it was swatted away at the last second.

Alice called out, "Zangoose, hit him with crush claw!"

Zangoose swiped with its razor-sharp claws, but it just barely grazed seviper below the neck. Seviper swung its tail blade at Zangoose, but missed by millimeters.

"Seviper!" called the biker, "put that Zangoose down for good! Poison tail, full force!"

Seviper coiled up and sprang at Zangoose, spinning in a way that would swing that deadly blade at Zangoose's neck. Zangoose tried to dodge, but the blade hit her in the chest, knocking her back a few feet. She hit the ground and kicked up a cloud of dust. Alice let out a cry of fear and pain. She couldn't take seeing her pokemon like that. Seviper quickly slithered towards Zangoose to finish it off.

"Umbreon, quick attack!"

Umbreon, who had been half crouched the whole battle, was ready to get in on it. She hit seviper full speed, sending it flying into a nearby tree.

The biker leader laughed, and said "So you want to play THAT way, do you!? Okay, we'll play. Seviper, hit Umbreon with poison tail!"

Seviper, still reeling from the hit, began to slither towards Umbreon, but it was noticeably injured. This gave Umbreon enough time to dodge the hit, and strike back with another full blast quick attack. Seviper went rolling and flipping across the field of the park, right to the biker's feet. His face twisted into a look of rage and total shock.

"Noooo!!" he shouted. "How could this happen!?" He put seviper back into its poke ball. I walked over to him, Umbreon right at my side.

"We had a deal," I reminded him. "If we beat you and your losers, you would give us back our money, so cough it up before I have Umbreon take you down."

He was completely in shock. He couldn't believe he'd just been beaten by us, just a couple kids. After a couple seconds, he went to the little satchel on the side of his bike and took out a small pouch that had our money in it. He handed it over, and said "I can't believe you beat me. But a deal is a deal, and you won fair and square. Take it, kid." Then he got on his bike and took off full speed.

I turned around and ran over to Alice and Zangoose, who was still on the ground. Alice was caressing her head, and talking to her.

"You did amazing, Zangoose." she said. "You almost had him, great work. You deserve a good rest." She put Zangoose back in her poke ball and stood up. "Thank you Joe, I appreciate your help." She looked down to Umbreon and smiled. "And I'm sure Zangoose appreciates your help too, Umbreon."

Suddenly Steph and Ron came into view down the street. "Joe!" Steph called out, "There he goes, that's the guy!"

Alice and I walked towards them. When we met up, I told them what happened, and that I got the money back.

We did our shopping at the poke mart, and healed Zangoose and Umbreon at the pokemon center. Now it was off to Petalburg City, and I now that we had some extra poke balls, I planned on catching another pokemon on the road there. I just hoped I would find something cool.


	4. Brandon, Stephen, and Ralts

By 4:00PM the next day, we were halfway to Petalburg City, and we decided to make camp for the night. After what happened the night before, I decided it was best that we stay close to the camp when looking for firewood. While Steph, Umbreon, and myself were out searching, we saw plenty of pokemon running about. But none that completely held my interest. Then I saw the little green and white mushroom. At least, it looked like a mushroom.

It was about ten feet away from me. The only reason I noticed it was because of the red fins protruding from the front and back of it. Now curious, I walked over to it to investigate. But when I got there, it disappeared.

"What the," I whispered.

Steph noticed, and asked "Is everything okay, Joe?"

"Yeah," I responded. "Just thought I saw something, that's all."

We went back to collecting firewood, and later that night by the fire I couldn't stop thinking about that mushroom-like thing. It has to be a pokemon, I thought to myself, but what kind?

In the morning we continued on to Petalburg City. It wasn't like anything I'd ever seen in my life. It was larger than I'd expected, but from what Alice told me some of the other cities around Hoenn, like Slateport and Mauville, were even bigger than this. I had no idea where anything was, but Alice had been here before, and she showed us the way to a pretty good hotel. We would stay here while I challenged the gym leader.

After a quick lesson in the city and where things were from Alice, Ron and I set out to find the gym. Steph and Alice decided to have a "girls day", whatever that meant. We would call them if there was going to be a battle.

When we got to the gym, there was a teenager outside. He had long blonde hair and glasses.

"Hey," he asked, "you guys lookin' for the gym leader?"

"Yeah," I replied. "This is the gym, right?"

He laughed. "Yeah, this is the gym, but Brandon isn't here. He went out to Route One-Oh-Two to find some berries for his pokemon. Try looking out there."

"Thanks." I called, and we left.

"Damn it," Ron exclaimed. "We just got into town! I don't want to go back out there just to find one person."

I, on the other hand, wasn't about to go alone. "Well Ron, you could come with me, or you could go back to the hotel and wait for the girls. Make a choice. Fun adventure, or boring day indoors." He chose the adventure.

It took us an hour to get out on Route 102. It didn't hit me until we were there that we didn't know where the leader was. Then again, it wasn't too hard to find him since the berry patches were just outside of town.

The leader, Brandon, looked like he himself was just a teenager. He couldn't have been any more than three or four years older than I was. Ron and I walked up to him.

"Hey," I called out, "are you Brandon?"

He looked up at me, and called back, "Yeah, that's me. If you're looking for a gym battle, you're gonna have to wait. I only do one badge battle per day, and you're a few hours too late."

Ron looked furious, but I was a bit more understanding. "Sure thing, I understand. I can wait another day before my first gym battle."

"Whoa, first battle?" Brandon's eyes widened, surprised. "Dude, in that case you're gonna have to wait a bit longer than just one day."

I was confused. "Why?"

"I can't just take any newbie who comes through Petalburg looking for a badge, its against the rules set by the Pokemon League. Besides, my pokemon are way too powerful for anyone who doesn't have at least four badges." Brandon went back to collecting the berries.

Although this information disappointed me, I asked Brandon if I could hang around and help him out, and he decided to let me. Ron, on the other hand, decided to head back to the hotel and just wait there. Umbreon walked around nearby, eating berries off the bushes every now and then. Brandon and I were out for a couple hours, collecting berries. While we were there, I got to talk to him a bit.

"So why do you need the berries?" I asked, curious.

"My pokemon." he answered. "My spinda loves iapapa berries, and my delcatty loves oran berries."

"That's cool. Hey, I don't mean any disrespect, but aren't you a bit young to be a gym leader?"

Brandon laughed at this. "Hey, I'm not that young, I'm twenty-two! My dad, Norman, used to be the gym leader. He retired a couple years ago, and decided that I was going to replace him. I didn't want to at first, but after awhile I got used to it."

We talked for another hour or so, stopping to pick the berries that Umbreon didn't eat. Finally, when his pack was full, we began to head back to the city. That was when I saw the mushroom-like pokemon again.

"It's a ralts!" Brandon whispered, excitement in his voice.

"I saw one of those last night," I whispered back. "It disappeared before I could get a closer look."

Brandon laughed quietly. "That's because ralts is the feeling pokemon. It can sense negative and positive feelings around it. They hate negative feelings, like fear, sadness, and anger, but love positive feelings, like happiness and love."

The pokemon began to come closer, slowly at first, but then quicker. I guess it thought we were pretty happy, and wanted to be involved.

"Ralts!" she called out as she approached. Umbreon looked a bit wary, but slowly walked towards her. Ralts touched her on the forehead, and they both began to smile and laugh.

Brandon and I decided to hang out there in the woods a little bit longer. We talked about pokemon. I found out that the Petalburg gym specializes in normal type pokemon. He had a spinda, delcatty, and a furret, and all of them were well trained.

After an hour there with the ralts, we decided we should head back to Petalburg. I was sure the others were wondering where I was, and Brandon needed to get back to the gym. On the way back, I kept hearing footsteps behind us, but when I looked back there was nothing there. Umbreon, on the other hand, sensed something else. She fired a confuse ray into the bushes behind us on the left, and a nincada came out, stumbling.

All of a sudden a voice broke out. "Vigoroth, tackle!"

A huge Vigoroth came out of the bushes to my right, and blindsided me, knocking me to the ground. Brandon tossed out a poke ball, and brought out his delcatty. "Delcatty, use faint attack!"

Delcatty disappeared for a second, then reappeared behind Vigoroth, hitting him in his legs and knocking him down.

For a second I was confused, but when I got to my feet and looked around, I could see Stephen, Alice's ex boyfriend from Littleroot town. Back by the bushes where the nincada was stood the lanky kid and the scrapper from the biker gang.

The scrapper called out, "Frank, take them down with taillow!"

Frank, the lanky kid, called back. "I've got 'em, Robert! Taillow, use peck!"

Taillow swooped down from above the trees and dove for delcatty. He dodged the attack, but was hit with a slash from Vigoroth's claws. He'd just gotten back up, and after taking down delcatty he charged straight for Umbreon. He hit her right in the side of the head with a mega punch, and then turned his attention to me.

I could hear Stephen laughing, then yelling "Vigoroth, hit that kid with a mega punch, and give him everything you've got!!"

I was frozen in that spot. I felt like I couldn't move. Vigoroth seemed to be coming at me in slow motion, like everything else had slowed down so that I could see this last moment. I was so focused on what was coming for me that I didn't even notice a small flash just in front of me. All I heard was "Ralts!!" and a purple bubble surrounded me. Vigoroth's fist slammed into the bubble, and he bounced off and flew back. That's when I snapped back into reality.

Ralts had put up a force field in front of me. She actually tried to protect me! Vigoroth got back to his feet, and looked pretty pissed off. Stephen was in awe, and Frank was just stunned.

"Vigoroth," Stephen called out. "Hit that thing with slash, go!"

"Ralts, protect yourself!" I shouted. I didn't know what ralts was capable of, but that shield was pretty darn powerful. She shouted out, then began to produce a small ball of energy between her hands, which were held just in front of her forehead.. Just seconds before Vigoroth reached her, she released a beam of energy and sent him flying back into a tree behind Stephen. He hit it with so much force that a few branches fell off.

"Vigoroth, no!" Stephen cried out. He ran to Vigoroth, put him back in his poke ball, and along with Robert, the scrapper, he took off running. Frank called taillow back to its ball and tried to run, but I caught up with him and tackled him to the ground.

"Why did you three attack us!?"

He tried to wriggle out of my grip, but I had him too tight. "We met up with that guy yesterday in town! We met him at the diner, he was talking to the chick there about you guys, and we heard him say something 'bout an Umbreon. We started talking and decided we wanted some revenge, so we came out here to ambush you guys!"

"Where are they going!?" I asked.

"I'm not telling!" he shouted, and kicked me in the knee, forcing me to release my grip. He took off running after them, and Umbreon followed. I called her back, though. They weren't worth chasing after.

Umbreon was tired, and Brandon's delcatty needed to rest, so we decided to head back to town right away. But then I remembered the ralts. She had saved me, but disappeared. She must have been scared by how I was acting.

"Ralts," I called out. "I'm not angry anymore! You can come out, I won't hurt you. I want to thank you for helping me."

After a couple seconds, the ralts slowly walked out of a nearby bush. She came up to me, so I took a berry out of my pack and gave it to her. She put her tiny hand up to her mouth, considering whether or not to take it, eventually grabbing the berry and taking a small bite. I couldn't see her eyes, but her mouth was definitely in a smile.

"So ralts," I asked, "how would you like to travel with me? I'm going to be traveling all around the world, and I want to take you with me. I'll train you, and feed you, and you can be friends with Umbreon, and all of my other friends' pokemon. What do you say?"

Ralts looked up at me, then over at Umbreon, who had a blissful, yet pained, look on her face. She finished the berry and jumped up, shouting "Ralts, ralts!!"

"Haha, okay then ralts, welcome to the family!" I took out a poke ball and touched it to ralts' forehead. It opened up and began to take her in. For a couple seconds the ball glowed red and shook around, but then it returned to its original red and white color and stopped moving.

"Yeah, ralts!" I shouted. Umbreon called out, and jumped up and down. Brandon congratulated me on my new addition. He said that its psybeam attack was extremely powerful for a pokemon of ralts' size, and that he couldn't wait for our battle. We began to walk back to the city. It dark by the time we got back, and Umbreon's gold bands began to glow.

When I arrived at the hotel room, everyone was happy to see me. Ron had filled them in on the situation with the gym battle, and they couldn't wait to get to Rustboro City to see me win my first badge. They asked what I'd been doing this whole time, and I told them about Brandon, the berries, and the fight with Stephen and the bikers.

"Oh my, Joe, I'm so sorry!" Alice was highly apologetic, but I let her know she had nothing to apologize for.

"Don't worry about it, its alright. After that fight, I don't think we'll be seeing much of them anymore. Besides, if it weren't for that, I wouldn't have met my new pokemon."

This perked everyone's attention. "New pokemon?" Steph and Ron asked at the same time.

I took out the poke ball and released Ralts. Everyone ooh'd and ahh'd, but Alice was completely silent. Her eyes widened, and the expression on her face was completely joyful.

"Aww, she's so cute!!" she cried, and knelt down to pick her up. Ralts seemed to really like Alice, because she began to laugh and smile.

When Alice finally put her down, Ralts walked over to Umbreon, who was laying by my bed. Umbreon's glowing bands absolutely fascinated Ralts, and she sat there for a long time just staring at them with a wide smile on her face.

I fed Ralts and Umbreon, and we all went to bed. In the morning we would buy some more supplies and head out for Rustboro City, and my first gym battle.


	5. Team Magma

I was disappointed that I wouldn't get to fight my first gym leader that day, but I figured that I would have to work my way up. No worries, I thought, I'll get him next time. In the morning we left Petalburg city and began walking on the path to Petalburg woods, which would ultimately lead to Rustboro City, and my first gym battle.

We decided to take a little rest at the beach around noon. There were barbeque pits on the beach near some tables, so we set up there for a little break. I cooked some meat for me and Alice on one pit, while Steph, a vegetarian, set up her own little cooking pit and boiled some veggies for her and Ron. Alice and I never understood the whole "don't eat meat" thing, but we didn't care, they could eat what they wanted to eat.

Before the meat was done, I let Ralts out of her ball so she could play with Umbreon. Alice let out her Zangoose, and Steph and Ron let out Mudkip and Poochyena. All the pokemon were getting along fine, and were having fun playing on the beach. After a little while, they ate, but then went right back to playing around.

Soon, however, a girl who seemed around our age came walking up the beach. She looked to be just shorter than me, with very dark brown hair which was back in a ponytail, and brown eyes. She was watching the sparkling waves for a bit, but then she saw us and came walking towards our little rest area.

As the girl came up, Umbreon and Ralts both rushed to my side. Umbreon sat back on her rear end and looked up at the girl, while Ralts had her hand on the side of her mouth in confusion.

She looked down at Ralts and Umbreon and smiled. "Are those your pokemon?" she asked, looking at me now.

"Yeah, they're mine," I responded. "I'm Joe. These guys are Alice, Ron, and Steph." I waved my arm to indicate each of them, then I motioned towards my pokemon. "And these two are Umbreon and Ralts."

"I'm Loraina," she said with a smile. "I live over in Dewford town, south of here on the ocean. Do you want to meet my pokemon?"

I nodded, and she took out two poke balls. "Crawdaunt, Pelipper, come on out!" Crawdaunt looked like a huge lobster, with the top of its armored body colored red, and the underside white and with blue and black markings. The second, Pelipper, was a large seagull, with a huge gullet under its long beak. Umbreon seemed to not like Crawdaunt. She got up off her backside and took a defensive stance that Crawdaunt mirrored.

"I don't think they like each other," I said with a chuckle. "Hey, do you want to have a little battle?"

Loraina smiled at me. "You're on! I pick Pelipper first. Wing attack!"

"Ralts, show her birdie what you've got. Confusion, go!"

As Pelipper flew at Ralts, she stood still, focusing her gaze at Pelipper. Suddenly, the air around Pelipper began to glow a light purple, and he stopped dead in his tracks, stuck in midair. Ralts lifted her hands in the air, then brought them straight down, bringing Pelipper with them. He hit the ground hard, and kicked up some sand with it. He was down.

Loraina looked surprised. "I underestimated you, good work. Pelipper, come back." She called Pelipper back to its poke ball, and put it away. "Crawdaunt, get out there!"

The lobster-like pokemon made its way in front of her. "Crawdaunt, bubble beam, go!"

Dozens, then hundreds of bubble shot out from Crawdaunt's open mouth. Ralts put up a purple bubble-like shield around her body, which deflected the bubbles away.

"Ralts," I called out, "hit that thing with a psybeam!"

Ralts put her hands in front of her head, and began to charge the purple beam like she had yesterday. Crawdaunt just stood in the same position, not moving or anything. Finally, Ralts fired the beam. It hit Crawdaunt, but seemed to have no effect at all!

Loraina laughed loudly. "You're gonna have to do better than that. Psychic type moves don't work against dark types, and Crawdaunt is half dark. Now, Crawdaunt, use crab hammer!"

Crawdaunt quickly scuttled towards Ralts, and before I could tell her to move, she was hit by one of his gargantuan pincers. He hit her so hard she flew back a few feet and landed just in front of me. I kneeled down to pick her up and check on her.

"Are you okay?" I asked her. She called back and tried to get up, but she fell back to her side. "Its alright, Ralts. Take a little break, you've earned it." I put her back in her poke ball.

"Umbreon, lets go!" I called out. Umbreon quickly trotted to my side and took a defensive stance. "Hit him with a quick attack, as fast as you can!"

Umbreon shot off like a bullet. She was so quick that she hit Crawdaunt before Loraina could even get an order in. He went reeling for a second, but was soon able to regain his footing.

"Crawdaunt, water gun!"

Crawdaunt opened his mouth and shot out a high-powered stream of water. Umbreon darted out of the way just before it reached her. I ordered another quick attack, and she hit him again, this time right on his soft underside. The attack forced him to roll over and over on his side, stopping right at Loraina's feet. He was down.

"Aww, I think that means you win," she said, disappointed. "Good fight though. Your pokemon are stronger than I expected."

"Thank you," I replied. "Your pokemon are pretty tough too. Hey, do you wanna chill here with us for a little while? If your not busy, that is."

She said yes, and we all hung out for a couple hours. First she talked about herself. She was from Dewford town, and came to Petalburg to visit her friends. She knew a lot about water type pokemon, and said that someday she wanted to become the leader of the Sootopolis city gym, which specialized in water-type pokemon.

After a little while, she said it was time for her to go meet her friends, and she had to go. We said goodbye, and went our separate ways: her to the city, and us towards the forest.

Steph seemed to really like her. "She was nice, Joe. I hope we see her again."

"I think we might," I replied. "Maybe when I go to Dewford town to battle the gym leader there."

"I hope so, she was cool." Steph looked up at Ron. They were walking hand in hand, and they started talking in that really quiet voice that only couples seem to be able to talk in. For a second, it annoyed me, but then Alice came up next to me, and we started talking.

"I liked how you battled back there," she remarked. "I thought that you handled yourself pretty well, and I thought you did really good with Ralts."

I smiled and looked down at her. She was on my left, and just past her the ocean was gleaming brightly. The sun was on its way down, and the light that reflected off of the waves made her eyes light up into a brilliant brownish-orange. A light breeze made her auburn hair wave back a little bit. I wanted to tell her how beautiful she looked, but I decided against it. I didn't want to freak her out.

"Thank you," I responded. "I want to get Ralts to do her best, and I want her to feel like part of the family, like Umbreon and you guys."

She beamed. "Aww, I'm part of your guys' family? Thank you!" She glanced down at the path in front of us as we walked. "At first I didn't think you guys would like me. I mean, I wouldn't have blamed you, having some random girl all of a sudden traveling with you. I just wanted to fit in, you know?"

"I know what you mean," I responded. "Before I met Steph , I always felt like I was just there, taking up space in the world. Pretty much all I had was Umbreon, I didn't really have any 'friends'. But she encouraged me to get out and do things with my life, and, well, here we are, haha."

We continued on like that for another half hour, until we reached the edge of the forest. From where we stood, it seemed like a vast expanse of trees, completely dark. We took a vote on whether or not to continue in today, or wait until morning, finally deciding to head in for awhile and camp inside.

Just as before, Alice and I went out to collect firewood. Umbreon followed close by me, and Alice let out Zangoose to help out. Her and I gathered a few small branches, and talked about ourselves, trying to get to know each other.

While we were talking, we weren't paying attention to where we were walking, eventually bumping into each other. The two of us dropped the wood we'd gathered, and chuckled a little. At that moment, we looked into each others eyes, and for a second forgot what we were doing. I leaned in to kiss her, and she leaned into it.

Our lips were about to touch, but then we heard the loud barking. Umbreon called out very loudly, and her golden bands began to lightly pulse. Zangoose dropped down on all fours, and pricked up his ears. Suddenly, a man dressed in a suit came running out of the woods. He tripped, and stopped by our feet. Just behind him were a man and a woman, each with a Poochyena next to them. They were both wearing red pants and shirts, with a black "M" in the middle of the shirts.

The man in the suit looked up at me and asked, "Please, protect me! They're trying to steal Mr. Stone's important documents!"

The man in red glared at me, and said "Listen kid, you're better off handing this guy over to us. He's got something we want, and if you get out of our way we'll let you go on with your business." The two poochyenas growled at us, and Umbreon and Zangoose growled right back.

Alice and I glanced at the man in the suit, then at each other. We both nodded, and I responded, "No way. If you want him, you're gonna have to battle us first."

This time it was the woman who spoke. "Have it your way, kid. We'll show you what happens when you get in the way of Team Magma!" Then both of them called out simultaneously, "Poochyena, bite!"

The Poochyena on the right went for Umbreon, and the one on the left went for Zangoose.

I ordered Umbreon to dodge and use quick attack, and Alice ordered Zangoose to use crush claw. Umbreon hit her target with pinpoint precision, sending it flying into the man's chest and knocking him down to the ground. Zangoose struck the other Poochyena right on the head, stopping it cold. He then picked it up and threw it back at the man in red. It landed at his feet, and him and the woman called their pokemon back to their poke balls.

They were both shocked that they'd been defeated so easily. Alice and I were shocked too.

"Hah," I laughed, "You call that a battle? Were you even trying, or are you guys really that bad?"

The man in red was fuming mad. "Gahh, you got lucky! This won't be the last time you see us, we'll get you kids next time!" They took off running into the woods, soon disappearing behind the trees.

The man in the suit stood up and thanked me. "You two really helped me out there. Those two are from Team Magma. I don't know much about them, but I know that they're nothing but trouble."

I was still confused. "Why were they chasing you? What documents were they trying to steal?"

The man shook his head. "They were trying to steal secret documents that belong to Mr. Stone, chairman of Devon Co., Hoenn's most powerful science corporation. I can't tell you whats on the documents, but I can't let anyone get ahold of them, that's how important they are. I hate to cut and run, but I really need to get these documents to our headquarters in Rustboro city. My name is Riley. If you guys are in Rustboro soon, come by our building and ask for me so I can thank you two properly."

Shortly after he left, we heard yelling coming from the direction of our campsite. Alice and I ran full speed back to the camp, trailing just behind Umbreon and Zangoose. When we arrived, Steph and Ron were each locked in battle with two more team Magma members. Steph and Mudkip were fighting a Houndour, and Ron and Poochyena were fighting a Baltoy.

Ron seemed to be having a tough time fighting the Baltoy, but a perfectly timed head butt put it down hard. The Magma agent called it back to its ball and took off running.

Steph, on the other hand, was having more that just a little trouble. Mudkip looked like he had taken quite a beating, but he was still standing, if just barely. Umbreon and I made to intervene, but we were rebuffed by Steph.

"No," she shouted, "we can handle it! Mudkip, tackle, go!"

Mudkip ran at Houndour, but a quick ember attack made him divert his course. The Magma agent ordered Houndour to use flamethrower.

Steph quickly called for Mudkip to get out of the way. He barely dodged the attack. "Mudkip," she cried, "use mud slap, hurry!"

Mudkip used its tail to kick up a thick clod of mud, which smacked Houndour right in the face.

"Houndour," the Magma agent called, "hurry up, watch out!"

"Mudkip, water gun, go!"

Mudkip opened his mouth and fired a concentrated fountain of water straight at Houndour, hitting him hard enough to knock him off his feet and into a nearby tree. The Magma agent called Houndour back to his ball, and, like the other agent, ran at full speed back into the trees.

Mudkip, tired from the battle, laid down on its side. Steph made to run to his side, but she stopped as soon as he began to glow a hot, bright white. The four of us stared at him in awe and amazement.

He quickly began to grow in size, first just a couple inches, but then he became just a little shorter than Steph was herself. After a few seconds, the white glow faded away, and Mudkip wasn't Mudkip anymore. He was a Marshtomp. Marshtomp's cheek spikes merged into one on each side, and he stood up on both feet as opposed to all fours. Also, two fins protruded from the back of his hind legs.

Steph was in complete shock. "Marshtomp, I can't believe it! You've evolved!" She was so caught up in what had just happened that she seemed to forget about team Magma. Ron and her both sat down and began playing with the newly evolved pokemon. Alice, who wasn't as excited as them, looked at me, smiled, and went into her tent.

That night, all I could think about was what almost happened out in the woods. I wanted to kiss her so bad, I nearly forgot about those people who attacked us. What did they want? What was so important about those documents that they would attack that man? I couldn't stop thinking about those questions, or about Alice.

Oh well, I thought, some other time. Hopefully.


	6. The Injured Houndour

_Note To My Readers: Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I've been busy with CST and AP testing, not to mention a HUGE project for my Spanish, Zoology, and Environmental Research classes. However, I AM done with testing, and two of three of those projects, so I should have the next chapter up soon. Thanks for reading, and if you like the story so far, please recommend it to friends._

The next morning I woke up before the others. Umbreon was already up, so I decided to go for a little walk around the camp with her. It was just before dawn, when the sky is still dark, but the light was just starting to creep over the tops of the trees. Umbreon's golden bands were still faintly glowing as a result.

Just as we were about to head out, Steph poked her head out of the doorway of her tent. She was still half asleep.

"Where are you going?" she asked, fading into a yawn.

"Out for a walk," I replied. "I wanted to get a bit of exercise."

"Oh," she exhaled. "Hold on a little bit, I wanna go with you."

I waited a bit for her to get ready. She let Marshtomp out of his ball and we set off. Along the way Marshtomp and Umbreon played around a little bit, and seemed to be getting along perfectly. We walked for about thirty minutes, and stopped by a couple berry bushes. While Umbreon and Marshtomp ate from the bush, Steph and I sat down and started talking.

"So Joe," she started, "What happened between you and Alice last night?"

At first I didn't know what she was talking about, but then I remembered just before we were attacked. "Her and I almost kissed. We were out gathering wood, and we bumped into each other. Just as we were about to, though, those team magma guys attacked us. How did you know about it?"

"Alice and I were talking last night after you went to bed. She told me about it, and she said she was a bit disappointed. She said she'd been thinking about it all day, but didn't get the chance until then.

I was surprised. "Really?" I asked. "I was disappointed too. I wanted to kiss her since we took on those bikers back in Oldale town. After what happened last night, I couldn't sleep because it was all I could think about."

"Well-" she began to say, but stopped. From somewhere out in the woods we heard a loud cry. Whatever was making the sound was obviously in a great deal of pain. Umbreon's ears pricked up, and she started running towards the cries. We followed close behind her.

A short distance away from us, next to an abnormally large tree, was the source of the screams: a Houndour. He was curled up between two of the tree's large, exposed roots. The skull-like part of his forehead had a large crack in it, which was bleeding. Also, on his right side was a long gash that stretched from the top of his right leg to the beginning of his tail.

As I approached him, he tried to stand up to defend himself, but the wounds forced him back down. I slowly walked towards him, hands up to show that I wasn't going to hurt him. Umbreon was just at my left side, and she slowly trotted over to him. She got there before I did, and the Houndour began to quietly whimper. He allowed me to touch him and pick him up.

"Don't worry," I said. "We'll get you some help, Houndour." I looked at Steph, who'd had her hand over her mouth in shock. "We need to get him to a Pokemon Center immediately. Lets get back and pack up camp, then we need to get to Rustboro City as quick as possible." She nodded, and after putting Marshtomp back into his ball we rushed back to the campsite.

We explained the situation to Ron and Alice, who began to pack their things quickly. I was the first one done, so I tried to do what I could to help Houndour. I fed him some of the berries we'd taken from the bushes. He was barely able to chew them, but once they were down he seemed to be somewhat relieved. When everyone was finished, we rushed down the path through the forest.

Once we got out, I could see Rustboro from the edge of the forest. If I wasn't so worried about Houndour, I would've taken time to admire the view of the tall buildings, but the injured pokemon was more important than the view. The lake between the forest and Rustboro wasn't too wide, and there was a bridge over it, so we rushed across it.

I sent Ron and Steph to go get us a couple rooms at a nearby hotel, while Alice and I took Houndour to the pokemon center. We found it fairly easily.

"Oh my," exclaimed the nurse. "What happened to this poor pokemon? Who would do such a thing?"

"I can't even imagine," I replied. "My friend and I were out in the woods for a walk, and we heard its cry. We found him like this. Is he going to be alright?"

The nurse looked him over, and then looked back at me. "I think we can help him, but it'll take quite some time for his wounds to heal."

The nurse put him in a small box-like machine and pressed some buttons on the computer next to it. The box closed, and a bright light began to emanate from the window on the door. She looked at me, and said "This will take a little while. Why don't you and your friends go sit in the waiting room."

After about twenty minutes, the nurse came out to us. The Houndour was in her arms, asleep. "We were able to close his wounds and stop the bleeding, but he'll need time to recover. I've put out the word that he's missing his trainer, and hopefully someone will come forward with information on just how this could happen."

Houndour's skull fracture ran from the top right to the bottom left corners. I looked back at the nurse. "What about the fracture? Will that heal?"

She shook her head. "Sadly, Houndour's outer bones aren't like his inside skeleton. They won't come back together after being broken, so unfortunately the fracture is permanent. It'll be there as a scar."

Ron and Steph came in just as the nurse handed Houndour off to me. They told me which hotel we were at and which room. I told the nurse that if anyone came looking for Houndour, that she could direct them to our room. Until then, I would take care of the Houndour. We left for the hotel.

After a day in town, nobody had come forward with information about the Houndour, so he was still with us. Fortunately, he was doing a lot better. He was able to stand on his own, and after another day or so he was able to walk. Finally, after three days, we got some information. The nurse called us into the pokemon center. Someone had finally come in and claimed Houndour as his pokemon.

When we arrived at the pokemon center, there was a thin man sitting down in the waiting area. The nurse told us that he was the Houndour's owner. We went over to talk to him.

"Are you the owner of the Houndour we found?" I asked him.

He looked up at me and smiled. "Yeah, I am. He ran off into the woods the other day when we were out for a walk. I've been out looking for him, and I just found out that someone had found him. Thank you so much, when can I see him?"

I smiled. "He's at our hotel room, come with us and we'll take you there." He nodded, and we left for our hotel.

When we arrived, Houndour began to jump up and down. Obviously he was doing much better. However, when his previous owner walked in, his behavior quickly changed. He stopped jumping, and began to whimper with his tail between his legs.

"Houndour," said the owner, "Its me, Eddie. Come on, I've missed you."

Eddie, the owner, was by the door. I had walked over to the other side of the room, where Houndour was. Houndour whimpered and went to hide behind my leg.

"Come on now," Eddie exclaimed, in what sounded like a light growl, "I don't have all day. Get over here now!"

Houndour cried, then barked. Umbreon, who had been on my bed, jumped up into a defensive stance and bared her teeth at Eddie. He began to come closer to Houndour, who responded by blowing a small flame out of its mouth at him.

Eddie, now with anger in his voice, yelled, "Damn it Houndour! You almost burned me! I guess you didn't learn your lesson last time!"

I was shocked to hear this. "Wait," I said. "You mean YOU did that to Houndour?"

"Yeah, I did!" Eddie replied. "Houndour disobeyed me, and needed to be punished. Now it seems that he needs a bit more discipline."

Eddie made to take a poke ball from his belt, but I stopped him.

"Wait, this is wrong. You can't use your pokemon to punish another. Pokemon aren't meant to be beaten, especially not by their own owners!"

"Don't you DARE tell me how to raise my pokemon, kid!" he shouted. By this time, the others had gathered in the doorway to see what the commotion was about. Eddie was extremely pissed off by now. "You're just some kid, what do you know about being a trainer? Sometimes you do what needs to be done to make your pokemon obey you, and that's just what I did!"

I shook my head. "You're wrong. Pokemon are meant to be friends of their trainers. They aren't meant to be punished. I'm not letting you take Houndour."

Eddie started laughing. "You won't let me take my pokemon? What gives you the right to-" He paused, then continued, seemingly calmer than before. "Okay, I'll make you a deal. If you can beat me in a pokemon battle, you can keep Houndour as your own. Stupid pokemon was just a disobedient piece of garbage anyways."

I agreed, and we walked down to the park that was just in front of the hotel. There was an unoccupied soccer field, so we used that as our battlefield.

Eddie called out his first pokemon. "Makuhita, get out there and show this kid who's right!"

Out of the poke ball came a short, fat looking yellow pokemon. Its eyes seemed closed shut, and its hands were fashioned like boxing gloves. It looked like a brawler, and I knew just the pokemon to take it on.

"Ralts, show him what you can do!" I released Ralts from her ball. "Psybeam, go!"

Ralts put her hands in front of her head and fired her powerful beam straight for Makuhita. He dodged just seconds before it hit. The ground where it made impact had a deep crater left after the attack. Makuhita rushed forward to strike with arm thrust. He hit Ralts, knocking her back about a foot, but she got back up, seemingly unaffected. Ralts began to emanate a purple glow, and she stuck her arms out in Makuhita's direction. He stopped in his tracks and began to hover off the ground. Suddenly it looked as it Ralts threw it up in the air, and it came crashing down. His impact kicked up a huge dust cloud. When it settled, he was knocked out completely. Eddie called him back to his ball.

"Grr," he growled. "You're good, kid. I'll give you that. But there's no way you can stand up to my Scyther! Go!"

Eddie tossed another poke ball, and a human-sized praying mantis-like pokemon came out.

"Scyther!" it called out.

"Scyther, fury cutter, now!"

The Scyther's wings fluttered, then rapidly buzzed, propelling it towards Ralts. Before I could give her the order to move, she was struck across the body by one of its engorged scythe-like claws. She went flying through the air, coming to a stop to my right. I took out her ball and called her back.

"You did great," I said as I put her ball back on my belt. Umbreon came up next to me. "Umbreon, quick attack, go!"

"Scyther, agility!"

Scyther suddenly began moving at twice its original speed, quickly evading Umbreon's attack. Next, before she could lock on to his current position, Eddie ordered him to use double team. Scyther split into a dozen incarnations of itself, quickly surrounding Umbreon. I ordered another quick attack, and she rocketed at one of the many Scythers. The target vanished on contact, with all of them coming back together in one, speeding towards Umbreon and uppercut striking her across the side with one razor sharp claw.

"Umbreon!"

Umbreon rolled over and over, finally coming to a stop in front of me. We'd been beaten.

"Hah!" shouted Eddie. "I win! Houndour is mine, kid. Get over here, Houndour!"

Houndour, who was behind me with Steph, suddenly jumped into a fighting crouch.

"Houndour, get over here NOW!" Eddie's face was splashed with rage. "Fine, have it that way. Scyther, slash!"

Scyther sped at Houndour, who was now just at my side. I wasn't about to let this happen, not while I was right here.

"Houndour, flamethrower!"

Houndour emitted a stream of flames from his mouth. The pillar shot towards Scyther, striking it before it could dodge. He hit the ground rolling, with black, smoking spots all over his body. Eddie's face morphed from anger to shock.

"Houndour is not going with you," I firmly announced. "I won't allow you to harm this pokemon anymore. He's mine."

Eddie, realizing he'd been beaten, called Scyther back to his poke ball. "Keep it!" he shouted, as he ran off. The crowd which had gathered around us began to cheer and applaud. I hadn't even noticed them until now. I sat down next to Houndour, who was now sitting on his hind haunches.

"Well Houndour," I said, "what do you think about joining us?"

Houndour looked at me sweetly, then yipped happily. He jumped on top of me, easily knocking me over, and began to lick my face.

"Haha, I take that as a yes!" I took out an empty poke ball and touched it to Houndour. It faintly emanated a red glow and rolled around, but stopped after a couple seconds.

"Yes!" I shouted. "Welcome to the group, Houndour!" I attached the ball to my belt. As the crowd began to disperse, a tall, skinny man began to walk towards us. His blonde hair went down to his jaw line, and at the ends began to curl.

He came up to me and shook my hand. "Hello, he said. "I'm Julian. I just want to say that was an excellent battle."

I smiled and shook his hand back. "Thank you, Julian, I'm Joe."

He took something out of his back pocket. It was a thin, square plastic casing, with a purple disc inside of it. "That guy dropped this on his way out. I don't think he'll be needing it anymore. You can have it."

I examined the disc when he handed it to me. Inscribed on the front side of it was TM30, and under it was written SHADOWBALL. Also inside the casing was a small piece of paper with writing on it, which I figured to be the instructions.

"I noticed that you didn't use any special attacks with your Umbreon. I think that this might help, since it doesn't require physical contact to do heavy damage to your opponent. You should teach it to your Umbreon, she'll need it, trust me."

I nodded, and kneeled down next to Umbreon. She sat down, and looked up at me, smiling. I read the instructions and touched the disc to Umbreon's forehead. She closed her eyes, and her yellow bands began to glow brightly. The disc emanated a brilliant white light, and disappeared.

Umbreon opened her eyes again. She jumped up into a battle position, and a dark ball of energy began to form before her eyes. Suddenly she fired it at a nearby tree, where it made a small explosion.

"There you go," Julian exclaimed, smiling.

"Wow," I whispered, still in awe. I looked back at Julian. "You know a lot about pokemon, Julian. How do you know so much?"

He smiled, then faintly laughed. "Well, you kinda have to if you're a gym leader."

My jaw dropped in shock. "You're the Rustboro gym leader?"

"Yep, that's me. Hope to see you soon, Joe. I can't wait to see how your pokemon can fare against my rock-hard defense." And with that, he left.

I sat down on a nearby bench. Ron and Steph congratulated me, and went to find a place to eat. I told them I would catch up. Alice stayed behind and sat next to me. Umbreon curled up at my feet, tired from her battle.

I was looking down at Umbreon. My arms were resting on my knees, with my hands dangling between them. Suddenly, Alice put her right hand on my left hand. "That was some battle you had there. Great job"

I looked up at her. She was smiling. If there was anything about her that was unlike any girl I'd ever met before in my life, it was her smile. When her lips curled up the way they did, it made my heart jump around and flutter like mad.

"Thanks," I replied. "I couldn't have done it without my pokemon. I hope I can be better for Houndour than that jerk was."

She sighed, then giggled lightly. "Of course you will be. Eddie was a heartless person. He wanted power over friendship, and I think its for the best that Houndour is with you now."

I looked into her beautiful brown eyes. She met my gaze, and before I knew what I was doing I felt myself slowly drifting towards her. She began to do the same, and her eyes closed slowly.

Suddenly, I heard a loud shout. "Hey, are you guys coming or what!" Ron was standing just at the edge of the park. Steph ran up just after he said that and pulled him away by the ear, but it was too late. Alice moved away, her face now a somehow happy pout. We stood up and began to walk towards them, Umbreon following along at a slow but steady speed.

Alice did, however, think it was necessary to keep holding hands with me as we walked to catch up with Ron and Steph. I had no complaints about that.


	7. The Stone Badge

I decided to spend the next day preparing for my coming battle with Julian. I wanted to scout his battling style, and see if I could find any weaknesses. I'd heard that he was having a few practice bouts with some local guys, and I went to watch them.

The first guy was put down after three minutes. Julian specialized in rock type pokemon, and the challenger had only flying types. Julian's first pokemon was a big, levitating rock shaped like the sun. He called it Solrock. It completely owned the first challenger's pokemon, all three of them. Swellow and Swablu, both small bird-like pokemon, went down almost without a fight. The third, Wingull, was a bit tougher, mainly due to its ability to use water type moves. It put up a bit of a fight, but in the end was taken down.

The second challenger was more of a fight. His first pokemon, a Lombre, use an excellent mix of water and grass type attacks, but in the end was defeated with a well-timed flamethrower attack. The second, Nincada, was taken down fairly quickly, even with Solrock's deteriorating condition. However, his third pokemon did the most damage. It was a large, beast-like pokemon that stood on all fours, and looked like it was covered in steel armor plating. Lairon, as it was called, was able to finish Solrock with its steel-type moves. Julian's second pokemon, however, was a pure beast. Graveler, a huge rock with four arms, used a move called earthquake, which devastated Lairon due to its type disadvantages.

In between the second and third battles, Steph came in and called me out.

"Joe, come on," she said. "Lets go get something to eat."

"Alright," I replied, "There's just one more battle, I'll go after it, okay?"

She shook her head. "No, I want us all to go together. Besides, we still have to go find that guy you told us about from the forest. I think I found out where the Devon Corporation is, so we should go check it out."

"But Steph, I need to get as much info as I can on this guy, or else I won't be able to beat him!"

She stared me down, and I got up and followed her out.

At the burger place where we went to eat, I saw two of the trainers that Julian had beaten. They were both visibly distraught. A couple minutes after we'd arrived, though, Julian himself walked in, and they both left. As far as I could tell, he didn't notice us. I wanted to go and talk to him, but Alice, who was sitting next to me, advised against it.

"If you let him know you were watching him," she warned, "he'll try to change up his strategy. Don't let him in on it so you can get the advantage."

"You'll need a bit more training, too." chimed in Ron. "Your pokemon have the advantage of speed, especially Umbreon. But Ralts has low defensive abilities, so she's gonna be vulnerable to his power hits."

I nodded in agreement. "You're right. Actually, I was planning on using Umbreon first against Solrock, since its half psychic type, and Umbreon's shadow ball should do heavy damage, but I don't know about the rest. Hell, I don't even know what his third pokemon is."

Steph spoke next. "I don't think you should worry about it too much. Focus on what you do know, and what you can do right now."

"You're right," I agreed. "I'll do a bit more training with Ralts and Houndour. I'm completely confident in Umbreon's abilities, its those two that I need more time training with."

"There's a great training gym just a couple blocks from here," said a voice from out of nowhere. We all looked up, and were surprised to see Julian standing right by our table. "I can give you the directions if you want them. You should check it out, it's a cool place."

Surprised, I nodded. He gave me the directions to the gym, and left. The four of us finished eating, and headed out. We all decided we'd split up into pairs and do our own thing for today. Ron and Steph went shopping, and Alice and I went to the gym to train our pokemon more.

At the gym, Alice hit the treadmills to get a bit of exercise, and she left Zangoose with the trainers there to work on her speed and agility. I took my pokemon to the battle arena there to work on their skills in battle. Umbreon, whom I normally kept inside her poke ball while indoors, was finally out and ready to fight. I worked closely with Ralts and Houndour first, since they needed the most training.

After a couple hours, we decided to take a break and rest. While the pokemon were playing, I went over to the weight machines and worked on myself for a bit. When their break was over, they went with the trainers to work on their individual skills. While I was working out, Alice came over and sat down next to me. I stopped, and we both looked at each other.

Her skin was glistening with sweat, but she was still more beautiful than any other girl I'd ever met. "So," she began, quietly, "what happened yesterday?"

I remembered it clearly, like it had just happened. Her lips inching slowly towards mine, just millimeters from touching. "Um," I said, "I'm not exactly sure. Its kind of a blur, really."

My attempt to play it off nonchalant had the exact opposite effect. It instead sounded like I didn't care about it.

"Oh, I see." She stood up. "I understand if you don't see it the way I did, Joe." And with that she walked off towards another machine.

"Wait, Alice!" I called after her, but she didn't turn around, or even acknowledge that I said anything. She was hurt, I could tell. Damn, I thought to myself, what did I just do?

I didn't go after her. By the way she acted when I called back to her, she didn't want to speak to me right now. I spent the next couple hours contemplating how that exchange could've gone differently, but I knew that I couldn't change the past. I may have just screwed it all up, I thought.

A little while later, Alice picked up Zangoose and left. I spent another hour at the gym, now training directly with my pokemon. Soon after, however, we left and headed back to the hotel to get some rest. Umbreon, Ralts, and Houndour were tired, but visibly excited. Later that night, I left the room to get a snack at the vending machine outside. While I was heading down, I passed by Alice, who was walking back from the same machine.

"Hey," I said with a smile.

She looked at me, smiled back, then looked down at the ground and continued back to her room. I'd never felt so bad in my entire life.

The next day, I was going to face Julian. I only hoped we'd trained enough. All four of us got up for an early breakfast, then headed over to his gym. On the way there, and even at breakfast, Alice didn't talk to me. Even though neither of us said anything about it, I could tell that Steph sensed something was up. I decided I would tell her after the battle.

When we finally got to the gym, Steph, Ron, and Alice went to sit in the bleachers. Julian was already up and waiting for me.

"Hey Joe!" he shouted, with a slight bit of arrogance in his voice. "You ready for this?"

I smiled, and hollered back, "You know it, man, lets get this started already!"

"Right to the point, I like it. Solrock, come out!" he tossed his first poke ball out, and Solrock entered the battlefield, ready for combat.

"Umbreon, lets go!" Umbreon, who'd been at my side, stepped out onto the field, taking a defensive stance. "Shadow ball, go!"

Umbreon produced the dark ball of energy in front of her head, then fired it at Solrock. He countered with flamethrower, and the two attacks met in an explosive conclusion. Before the smoke cleared up, Umbreon rushed and got closer to Solrock, effectively closing the distance.

"Solrock," cried out Julian, "rock throw, now!"

Solrock lifted some rocks into the air with its mind powers, but Umbreon fired off another shadow ball before it could throw them. The attack hit right in the center of Solrock's body, and sent it flying. It was out like a light. Julian called it back to its ball.

Julian was shocked, but also somewhat amused. "Nice attack," he said, "but lets see if you can beat this. Graveler, its your turn!"

The four-armed boulder came out of its ball. His sheer bulk noticeably took Umbreon by surprise. This was all he needed to catch her off guard. He picked her up with the longer pair of arms, and threw her halfway across the field. Graveler finished her off with a rock throw attack.

I was saddened to see Umbreon be hit the way she was, but I put her back into her ball for a rest.

"Ralts, you're up, go!"

I tossed out Ralts' ball, and when she came out Julian laughed at her size, as she was just a fraction of Graveler's size.

"Are you trying to get your pokemon destroyed? Graveler, rock throw!"

Graveler picked up a couple large boulders and tossed them at Ralts with all the force it could muster. Ralts, however, used her psychic abilities to catch them in mid-air and send them back in Graveler's face with twice the power. It was enough to take him down. Julian was noticeably disappointed.

"Okay, you got me there. But I'll bet you won't know what to do with this one! Sudowoodo, finish it!"

Out of his third ball came a pokemon I'd never seen before. It looked like a tree, but with a face and legs. This completely took me by surprise.

"Ralts, psybeam, go!"

Ralts began to charge her beam, but Sudowoodo was quick enough to close the distance before she could fire.

"Sudowoodo, faint attack!"

Sudowoodo disappeared for a couple of seconds, vanishing right when Ralts fired her beam. Just when she fired, he popped up behind her, and struck with enough force to knock her in the air. As she was coming down, Julian ordered Sudowoodo to use its slam attack. He grabbed her right before she hit the ground, and slammed her down. She bounced a few feet, landing at my feet. I picked her up, and put her back into her ball.

"Okay julian, lets end this! Houndour, I choose you!"

I let Houndour out of his ball. When he entered the battlefield, he howled extremely loudly.

"Houndour, roar, go!"

Houndour then roared with all his might, startling Sudowoodo enough to knock him to the ground.

"Hit him with flamethrower, go!"

Houndour blasted a stream of red-hot fire from his mouth, burning Sudowoodo before he could move. Sudowoodo tried to get up to his feet, but fell back down. He'd been beaten. I'd won.

My three friends jumped up and began shouting my name, and Houndour's name, and cheering joyfully.

Julian put Sudowoodo back into his ball, and walked over to me. "Great fight, Joe. I didn't expect your pokemon to battle so well, I gotta say I underestimated you."

I smiled. "Thanks, julian. Your pokemon fought great, it was one hell of a challenge."

A younger boy came out from the bleachers carrying a small case. He handed it to julian. When he opened the case, I saw eight grooves in the velvet inside of it. Seven of them were empty, but pre-shaped. The first one had a small, golden badge in it.

"In reward for beating me, I'm glad to award you the Stone badge. You've earned it, brother."

I took the case and thanked him. I went outside and met up with the others. They all congratulated me, and were very excited that I'd won my first match. Alice even seemed happy for me.

Ron and Steph wanted to treat me to lunch as a reward for my victory, and the four of us began walking in the direction of a restaurant they'd found the day before. On the way there, however, I looked over at Alice. She was still disheartened from yesterday.

"Hey, guys," I said to Ron and Steph, "how about you two go ahead and get us a table. Alice and I will catch up to you guys, I need to talk to her."

They nodded, and went off. Alice looked at me, mouth open in surprise.

"Whats going on?" she asked.

"About yesterday," I started, but she interrupted me.

"Joe, don't worry about it. I understand if you don't see me the way I see you. I mean, I know I'm not the prettiest girl out there, so its okay."

I shook my head. "That's not it at all. You're more beautiful than anyone I've ever met, and I mean that."

"Don't lie to me," she quietly replied. "I know it-"

Before she could continue I grabbed her by the wrists and gently pushed her up against the wall. I couldn't take it anymore.

"What are you doing?" she called out.

"I'm showing you how much I mean what I said." I kissed her, softly. At first she kept her arms where they were, mainly out of shock of what was happening. But after a couple seconds, she accepted it, and moved them up and around my neck. I put my hands down onto her sides. She began to kiss me back, harder.

After about a minute, I pulled my lips off of hers. "Do you believe me now?"

She was beaming with her bright, exuberant smile. "Of course. I just-"

Suddenly, her gaze went from my eyes to behind me. I didn't know what was going on at first, but then I turned around, and saw what had made her stop mid-sentence.

Just ten yards away from us were Stephen, Frank, and Robert. Her ex-boyfriend, and the two biker kids from Oldale town.

"This could be a problem," she said quietly.


	8. The Traitor

_Joe_

I stood there in front of Alice. Right behind us were Stephen, Frank, and Robert. The latter two had their pokemon out. There was something different about them, though. They'd evolved. Now they had a Swellow and a Ninjask. We stared each other down for a good minute, then I turned to Alice.

"Run," I whispered to her. "Catch up with Steph and Ron. I'll take care of these guys. On when I give you the signal, run."

"Whats the signal?" she asked, confused.

"I'll take out a poke ball. Get ready."

She nodded, knowingly. I turned back to the others.

"What are you doing here?" I shouted to them.

Stephen laughed, and was mirrored by the other two. "Isn't it obvious," he asked. "I'm here for her. And I'm here for you. We're going to get our revenge, and there's nothing you can do to stop us."

I took out Houndour's poke ball, nodding to Alice. "You won't get anything except a beat down!"

Alice shot off. Stephen took off after her. I made to follow them, but Robert's Ninjask was so fast it rocketed in front of me before I could catch up. Looks like I'll have to face these two first, I thought.

Robert laughed maniacally. "You ain't going nowhere, punk! If you wanna get Stephen, you gotta get through us first!"

Frank's Swellow flew circles up above us. He ordered it to use peck, and it darted down at me.

In retaliation, I tossed my poke ball and brought out Houndour. He came out of his ball, and looked up at the Swellow.

"Houndour, flamethrower!"

He shot red-hot flames from his mouth, completely engulfing the Swellow in fire. It hit the ground hard, and kicked up dust. Frank, defeated, called him back to his poke ball, and ran off.

Ninjask came out of nowhere. Robert ordered a fury cutter attack, and it hit straight along Houndour's left side. He fell to the ground in pain. Ninjask came back for another hit, striking this time along the right side. Houndour couldn't battle anymore, so I called him back to his ball.

"Umbreon, lets do this!"

Umbreon came out of her ball. I only had her in there because of the battle we'd just had at the Rustboro gym. She was visibly weakened, but she looked able to fight again.

"Umbreon, quick attack, go!"

She darted forward, missing Ninjask by just an inch. He countered, and went back in to use slash, but Umbreon deftly ducked out of the way. I ordered her to use a shadow ball attack, and she hit Ninjask right in the back, knocking it to the floor. He got up, and just as he turned around, Umbreon hit him with a quick attack, sending him flying through the air, and into a nearby bush. Robert called it back to its poke ball, and took off running in the same direction as Frank.

With those two out of the way, I was free to go find and help Alice. I started off in the direction she'd ran, and I hoped I'd be able to find her. If Stephen had hurt her, I would destroy him.

_Steph_

Ron and I walked ahead of Joe and Alice, after they'd asked us to go save us a table at the restaurant. We were already almost there, but suddenly I heard a commotion nearby. There was a voice shouting, and Ron and I went to investigate.

From almost out of nowhere, I saw a guy wearing a red and black outfit, with a big M in the middle of his shirt, run by. I quickly recognized him as a Team Magma member. A little ways behind him was a man in a suit, clearly out of breath. He stopped in front of us. I went over to him.

"What happened?"

"Team Magma," he panted out. "They got it! They got the package!"

Confused, I asked "What package?"

He sat down, and exhaled, " The package for Slateport city! It needs to get to Captain Stern!"

I looked at Ron, and he nodded. "We'll help you." I said. "Where do you think he's headed?"

"Most likely the Rusturf tunnel," he replied. "Its not far from here. I'm sure if you hurry you can catch him! Please, we need to get that package back!"

I agreed, and Ron and I set off chasing the Magma agent. It was pretty easy to track him, since he was in such a rush that he knocked over just about everything in sight. After about twenty minutes we were out of the city, and we'd arrived at the tunnel. It was pretty much built into the side of a huge mountain. There were some men outside, they looked like construction workers. The three of them were standing around an old man, who was sitting on the ground with his head between his knees.

I decided to ask them if they saw the Magma agent come by here.

One of the construction workers looked over at me. "Yeah, he ran by just a couple minutes ago," he said. "We asked what was going on, and he attacked Mr. Briney here," he pointed to the old man. "Jerk stole his pokemon and ran off into the cave."

I was disheartened. "Damn it," I exclaimed. "He's probably already at the other end of the tunnel by now!"

"I doubt it," chimed in one of the workers. "We've had to stop blasting through the cave because of the pokemon inside. Environmental Board says we're harming the native pokemon, and that we have to stop blasting. Its pretty much a dead end halfway through, so he can't have gone far."

I smiled, and thanked them. Ron and I went into the cave.

_Alice_

When Joe took out his poke ball, I ran as fast as I could to catch up with Ron and Steph, but I couldn't find them anywhere. I got to the restaurant where we were supposed to meet up, but all I found was a tired old man outside.

When I turned around to head to the hotel room, I saw Stephen standing there, grinning this completely evil grin.

"And," he said, his voice laced with the same arrogance that made me leave him, "just where do you think you're going, baby?"

I stared deep into his eyes, and replied, "I'm not your 'baby' anymore, Stephen. I told you, we're done." I slid my hand down to my belt, placing it over Zangoose' ball, just in case I would have to fight my way out.

"Alice, please, just listen to me. All I want is for you to come back home with me. I'm sorry for what I did, and I'm sorry for what I said. That girl was nothing to me, and-"

I cut him off mid-sentence. "That girl was my best friend! BOTH of you took my trust for granted, and betrayed me! That's why I left you, and that's why I left town! I'm not going back anytime soon. There's nothing for me there anymore."

Stephen sighed heavily, then became angry. "You know, you're not such an angel yourself! I remember how you lied to me all those times, and how you betrayed MY trust to you!"

"I lied to get away from you!" I felt tears welling up under my eyes. "I was sick and tired of you venting your anger on me, and I was sick and tired of your stupid mood swings! I'm done with you. Get the hell out of here, Stephen, or else I have Zangoose make you leave." I took the ball off of my belt and prepared it.

Stephen furrowed his brow in anger. "You wanna do things that way, do you? I'm not letting you go, Alice, no matter how much you want me to. Vigoroth, go!" He tossed out a poke ball, and Vigoroth came out onto the empty city street.

"Zangoose, lets do this!" I tossed the ball, and Zangoose appeared, ready for battle. "Zangoose, crush claw, go!"

"Vigoroth, slash!"

The two man-sized, white-furred pokemon rushed at each other; Vigoroth on two legs, Zangoose on all fours. The two collided, Zangoose drawing a massive swipe across Vigoroth's face, and Vigoroth slicing along Zangoose' belly. The two pokemon stopped six feet away from each other, both facing the other's trainer. The sun beat down from above, as they both stood there. Finally, Zangoose collapsed to the ground. Vigoroth stood tall, the winner of the showdown.

"NO!" I screamed. I couldn't handle it anymore. The tears started pouring out, and I began to sob heavily.

Stephen bellowed out a laugh, then exclaimed "That settles it, babe! You're coming home with me, now!"

I put Zangoose back into his ball, then tried to run away. I tripped over a small rock on the ground, falling to my knees. I took a quick look behind me, and saw Stephen and Vigoroth making their way towards me. I tried to get up, but my legs just hurt too much. I crawled to a nearby tree, and they caught up to me.

_Steph_

Inside of the cave was pretty dark. There was just enough light to see, but even then only a couple feet in front of me. I brought Marshtomp out of his ball, just in case the Magma agent tried to jump us. Ron walked at my side.

"Steph," he said. "I've been thinking lately."

"About what?" I asked.

"Do you remember when we were attacked by the Team Magma guys out in the woods?"

I nodded, and replied "Yeah, I remember, why?"

"Well," he hesitated, then continued. "I thought about what they said to us. About wanting to make more land, and covering the oceans, and whatnot. I kind of agree with them. If there was more land, then there'd be more space for people to live, and-"

"You can't be serious!" I interrupted. "Ron, that would mean permanent displacement for all the pokemon in the oceans! Whatever couldn't find a new home would surely die! That's horrible!"

"Steph, you've gotta see the possibilities, though."

"No," I denied vehemently. "There are no possibilities, Ron. That's the worst thing I've ever heard you say. I don't want to hear you talk about that again, do you understand?"

"Yeah, sure." he quietly replied.

Why would he say that, I thought. You can't just make more land for land's sake. All the pokemon who live in the seas would be killed, or have to find a new place to live. Why would he even consider it?

The questions in my mind went unanswered, as we found the Magma agent. Like the construction worker said, there was a huge block in the path through the mountain, and he was unable to get past it. Next to him was a small Wingull, with his wings tied down to his sides.

"Hey," I shouted. "What do you think you're doing!"

Alarmed, he quickly spun around, and shouted "How did you find me!"

Marshtomp stood up on its two back legs, and took a fighting stance. I shouted to the Magma agent, "Let the Wingull go, and give back the Devon package, and maybe I'll let you go."

He chuckled in amusement. "You can't stop us, we're too powerful for you! Team Magma will make more land, and create a new world! And when we're in control, I'm going to personally make sure that you and your little boyfriend are thrown in prison, where you'll never see anything or anyone ever again!"

Ron tossed his poke ball, and brought out his Poocheyena. The Magma agent brought out his pokemon, a Mightyena. It looked like a Poocheyena, just bigger, and more ferocious.

"Marshtomp, mud shot, go!"

Marshtomp sprayed the dirt around it with water from its mouth, then flipped a wad of mud with its tailfin at Mightyena. He dodged it, and charged at Marshtomp to use bite. It caught him on the arm, but it was just a graze wound. Ron ordered Poochyena to tackle Mightyena, and he hit right on its rear end. Mightyena turned around, and roared, making Poochyena cower with fear. Ron moved closer to being in between me and the Magma agent, but off to the side.

"Marshtomp, tackle!"

Marshtomp took the distracted Mightyena by surprise, and knocked it back a few feet. He fell over onto his side.

"Poochyena, bite!"

Ron's Poochyena rushed from the side. I expected him to attack the Mightyena, but instead it bit onto Marshtomp's leg, bringing him down to his knees.

In shock, I screamed, "RON! What the HELL do you think you're doing!"

"Its over, Steph," he shouted back. "I have to do this. Its my destiny to help Team Magma. Their plans and ideals are right, and I have to do everything I can to bring their plan to fruition. I'm sorry, but this has to be done!"

The Magma agent, at first worried, was now malignantly smiling. "Kid, you've just made my day! Mightyena, take down, go!"

_Joe_

Umbreon was at my side as I ran to find Alice. It had been a few minutes since she'd taken off, so she couldn't have been far, but I couldn't find her anywhere. Finally, I heard a shout, unmistakable her voice. I headed off in the direction it came from.

I arrived at the restaurant Steph and Ron were going to, but they were nowhere to be found. Instead, I saw Stephen and Vigoroth standing over Alice, who was slowly trying to back away, coming into contact with a tree. I could hear Stephen's evil laugh, breaking through the surprisingly quiet afternoon air.

"Umbreon," I whispered, "hide behind that bush there." I pointed to a bush just to the right of Vigoroth, but still far enough for Umbreon to get to unnoticed. Umbreon acknowledged my command, and darted off behind it.

I quickly walked over to Stephen, and stood a few feet behind him. "Let her go, Stephen. She's not going anywhere with you."

He turned around, astonished. "Well," he said, "I guess those two buffoons were weaker than I'd thought. No problem. I'll get rid of you, first. Then I'll take my Alice back home where she belongs. Vigoroth, take down!"

Vigoroth dropped to all fours, and made to charge at me.

"Umbreon, quick attack!"

Mere seconds before Vigoroth made contact, Umbreon blindsided him, knocking him six feet away. He tried to get up, but fell back to the ground, defeated. Umbreon then turned her attention to Stephen, whose mouth was locked open in shock.

"Now," I calmly announced, "I suggest you leave before I have Umbreon give you a firsthand demonstration of her new attacks."

Stephen, knowing he'd been beaten, put Vigoroth back into his ball and took off running, full speed. I quickly ran to Alice, who was bleeding a little bit from her knees, the bottom edges of her shorts slightly torn.

"What happened? Did he hurt you?"

She shook her head. She was crying. "No," she said through the tears, "I fell. I'll be alright though."

I held my hand out to her so I could help her up. She took it, and stood up, wiping the blood off her knees. "Where are Steph and Ron?" I asked.

Suddenly, and old man in a suit came out from the restaurant. It was the same man from the forest. "If you mean the girl with black hair, she went to Rusturf tunnel about thirty minutes ago. If you hurry, you can catch up to her!"

I thanked him, and Alice and I hurried off to find them, Umbreon just barely ahead of us.

_Steph_

I couldn't believe that Ron was betraying me this way. I loved him, and he loved me. Why would he do this? I started to cry. Tears began to torrent down my face, dripping onto my shirt. Marshtomp, now heavily injured, was facing down two pokemon, alone, and there was nothing I could do about it.

The three of them battled it out. Marshtomp was at a hefty disadvantage, but he was able to hold them off for a few minutes.

"Marshtomp, water gun, go!"

He fired a blast of water at Poochyena, knocking it back. However, this opened him up for an attack by Mightyena. He came from the side, striking Marshtomp with take down. He hit the floor hard, and didn't get up. I ran over to him and dropped down to my knees by his side.

"Marshtomp, please," I wept. "Please get up!"

Ron shouted, "Hey, we gotta get out of here! I'm sure Joe and Alice are on their way!"

The Magma agent nodded to him, and they put their pokemon back into their poke balls. The Magma agent picked up the Wingull, and they started running back towards the entrance.

I sat there, in the dark, Marshtomp nestled into my arms. The only sounds I could hear were my sobs, the tears hitting the ground, and Ron and the agent's footsteps as the ran towards the entrance.

Suddenly, they stopped, and I heard a voice echo through the cave. It was Joe's voice. I turned around, and although they were far off, I could see him and Alice, standing in the light of the entryway. Umbreon was at Joe's side, and Alice was holding a poke ball in her hand. The Agent and Ron brought out their pokemon. I heard them battle it out, but it was very short. I put Marshtomp back into his poke ball and ran towards them.

Ron and the agent were on the floor, their pokemon defeated.

"Ron, what the hell!" Joe shouted, incredulously.

Ron told him about what happened, why he changed sides.

"You sicken me," Joe quietly said in disgust. "You two, get the hell out of my sight!"

"Wait!" I called out, still quietly weeping. "He has an important package from Devon Corp. The old man sent us to get it back, and that Wingull isn't his. He stole it from the man outside! You need to get them both back!"

Joe, who hadn't even noticed I was there until I said something, nodded. "Hand them over," he ordered. "Do it now, or else I'll take them forcefully!"

The Magma agent untied the Wingull, and tossed the package, a bulky yellow envelope, at Joe's feet. Him and Ron got up and ran out, one after the other.

_Joe_

The three of us, minus Ron, walked back to Rustboro in silence. We gave the old man outside the cave his Wingull back. He'd thanked us for returning his pokemon, and told us that he was a world-renowned sailor. As a thanks for rescuing his pokemon, he offered to ferry us over to Dewford town. We told him that we had some more business in Rustboro, but when we were done, we'd be thankful for that ride.

When we got back into town, we headed straight for the Devon Corporation headquarters. The man in the suit, Riley, was thankful for us returning the package. He took us to meet Mr. Stone, the CEO of Devon Co.

Mr. Stone, a man in his late forties, thanked us for retrieving the package. We let him know about Team Magma, and that we were headed to Dewford next, for my next gym battle. Mr. Stone asked me to deliver the package to Captain Stern in Slateport City. We agreed, then headed to the pokemon center. After this hell of a day, our pokemon deserved a long, well-earned rest.

Later that night, the three of us sat at the park that was by our hotel. The three of us told each other what had happened today, and Steph and Alice both started crying again. We sat there in the moonlight for a few more hours. I tried my best to comfort them.

When we finally went back to our rooms, I couldn't sleep. I stared out the window at the moon. Wherever they were, I hoped Ron and Stephen were getting their rest. They would need their strength. That night, I made a vow that the next time I saw either of them, I would destroy them. They hurt my friends, and that's one thing that I don't forgive.


	9. The Skirmish

Mr. Briney, the old man who's Wingull we'd saved, was kind enough to offer us a lift across the sea to Dewford town, then to Slateport city.

The boat wasn't too big, but there was space enough for the four of us. It was shaped like a houseboat, with a two floor main cabin, and an open rear section. We were moving at a decent speed, fast enough to get us there by the end of the day. We didn't care about time, though. We were still coping with the previous days events.

Steph was sitting at the furthest end on the rear, down on the left side of the boat with her legs out under the railing, just above the top layer of glistening blue ocean. Alice was on the top deck, which was basically an open floor with railing around the sides. She was standing against the front railing, staring out ahead of us. They'd both been there for a couple hours, since we'd left Briney's dock.

Mr. Briney himself was at the helm, steering the boat. Umbreon and I were inside the main cabin. I talking to him about Team Magma.

"Mr. Briney," I'd began, "So what exactly is the purpose of Team Magma, and why would they steal your pokemon?"

He coughed, then replied "I don't know much, and what I do know is just rumor, m'boy. From what I hear, they've been around for years, but just started getting courage these last couple months. Rumor has it they're tryin' to make more land, but says I, 'How 'ya gonna make more land short of eruptin' a darn volcano?"

His Wingull, Peeko as he called it, came into the cabin from an open window, making a seagull's call. "As for why they took Peeko here," he continued, "him an' I were out for a walk, you see. Wanted to check if that tunnel was finished. Wanted to visit m'grandaughter out in Verdanturf. But the tunnel, she wasn't done yet, said the workers outside, so me an' Peeko headed home. Next comes runnin' some kid in red an' black, tells me to give Peeko over or pay up. 'Nuts to ya', I told 'im, so he took Peeko an' tied 'im up. Next thing I know, your friend out there comes runnin' up, an' heads into the cave with another boy, bout your age."

I nodded, then added solemnly "That boy joined Magma. He deserted us, and her." I pointed out to Steph, who was still sitting under the railing. "He's a coward, who traded sides to save his own butt. Next time I see him, he's going down."

Briney made a wheezy, cracked chuckle, then exhaled "Ahh, m'boy, one day you'll learn that revenge ain't never the answer. No matter how someone did 'ya wrong, its better to forgive, it is."

I gripped my hands into fists, then forced out "Yeah, we'll see. Thanks for the ride, Mr. Briney."

He nodded, and I stepped outside, followed by Umbreon. I walked over to Steph first. She'd been crying, but trying to stop. I could tell from the quick sniffles she made when she saw me coming.

"Hey Joe," she said with a forced smile. "How much longer until we get there?"

I sat down next to her under the railing. "Shouldn't be more than a couple more hours," I replied. "Why would you want to get there so fast, anyways? It's a beautiful day today. No clouds, blue skies and waters, and even the pokemon in the water are happy!"

It was true. Everywhere I looked around us, there were schools of Magikarp and Remoraid jumping in and out of the water. Steph just put her head down and sighed.

"Maybe," she said, "but its doing nothing for me. I can't believe he would do that to me, you know? He just up and switched sides, just like that! I mean, how can you do that to a person? Just turn on them like that?"

I put my arm around her to comfort her. "You have to be a real bad kind of jerk to do something like that. I'm so sorry, Steph. What he did was just plain wrong, and the fact that he did it to you is just terrible. Don't worry, though. If we ever see him again, I'll handle him if you want me to."

She smiled, wiped her eyes, and sniffled again. "No, that's okay. I don't want you to hurt him. Even though he did that, I still love him. I don't want him getting hurt."

"Fine," I said with a smile. "I won't do anything to him. On purpose, that is. If he attacks me, then I can't say that he won't have any little 'accidents', if you know what I'm saying."

She laughed, and slapped my arm. "Thanks for trying to make me laugh. I really needed it."

She looked up, over at Alice, who was on the top deck. "So what happened with you two?" she asked. "I remember you guys staying back to 'talk'. How did that go?"

I looked out towards the ocean, and quietly responded, "We kissed."

Steph put her hands up to her mouth in shock. "Really!"

"Shh!" I put my right index finger up to my lips. "Don't say it out loud! I don't think she'll be too happy about it, especially since we were interrupted by Stephen and his gang. I don't know much about their history, but if its any bit as bad as it seemed, then I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to talk about-"

"Talk about what?"

Alice's angelic voice rose up from behind us, startling me so much that I jumped up, almost falling overboard. She was smiling, but I could tell she'd been crying as well. "You're pretty sure I don't want to talk about what?"

"Ahh," I struggled to come up with an answer, but Steph saved me.

"He's sure you don't want to talk about gym battles." she answered. "I thought that you would, since you love pokemon, but he doesn't think so."

She gracefully planted herself on my other side, under the railing. She stretched her long, smooth legs out until the tips of her feet skimmed the water, then sat the way the rest of us were sitting. "You're right, Joe. I don't really want to talk about gym battles. Or any battles in general. I don't really want to talk about anything right now. I just want to relax, and take in the beauty of the day, you know?"

I nodded in agreement, but I could tell from her voice that there was something bothering her. I decided not to pursue it at that moment. Her idea about taking in the day sounded like a good idea.

We arrived at the main dock in Dewford town two or three hours later, I lost track of time on the boat. It was a peaceful sounding little town, with only a few homes, all surrounding a pokemon center. At the southernmost tip of the town was a large building, obviously a pokemon gym.

Although I wanted to get to the battle right away, we all decided that making camp was probably the best idea, since it was almost nighttime, and there were no places to stay in town. We walked a little ways into the forest surrounding the town and made camp out there.

Later that night, the three of us were sitting around the campfire. Umbreon was laying on my lap. Alice and Steph had decided to let their pokemon out, too. Zangoose and Marshtomp were both eating by their trainers' tent. Suddenly, there was a loud rustle in the bushes nearby, and all three pokemon jumped into defensive stances.

Alice, Steph, and I all stood up, scanning the woods around us. Umbreon began to growl, and a man stepped out from behind some trees. He was taller than me by about three inches, and his arms were much thicker than mine. This guy was buff. He was holding a poke ball in his left hand.

"Hey," he called out gruffly, "who are you kids?"

I slowly walked over to him, Umbreon right at my heels. "I'm Joe," I said. "Over here is Alice, and Steph. We're here so that I can challenge the gym leader for a badge. Who are you?"

He smiled, laughed, and answered. "My name's Rito, kid. If you're lookin' for a gym battle, its gonna have to wait until we solve the bug problem on this island." He motioned out at the forest behind him, and called out "Hey, its cool everyone, you can come out!"

A large group of townspeople came out from behind trees and bushes, and walked towards us. As they came, I continued our conversation.

"So you're the gym leader?" I asked.

He laughed a booming, hearty laugh. "Yep, I'm the gym leader. I specialize in fighting type pokemon."

I nodded, then added "What do you mean bug problem?"

He looked down at me, then his face went from a joyful expression to a slightly annoyed one. "For the last couple days, the townspeople have been getting' attacked by a swarm of Beedrill. I don't know where they came from, or how they got here, but I do know that their nest is somewhere out here in the woods, and we're gonna find it and make 'em leave."

"How do you plan on doing that?" I asked, incredulously. "Are you gonna just go in there and destroy the nest, or what?"

Rito started laughing again. "Of course not, kid! Whaddya think I am, some kinda pokemon hater? We're gonna mess with 'em for a bit to try and draw out the queen. Once someone either knocks out the queen, or captures her, I think they'll leave."

I didn't fully understand the plan, but I nodded. "I think we'll go with you to help out. If that's okay with my friends." I looked over at Alice and Steph, who were now back to relaxing by the fire. "Guys, is that okay?"

They didn't know what I was talking about, so I explained the plan to them. Alice seemed to be on board, but Steph didn't want any part of it.

"No way," she fought. "I'm not going to help you guys harm a bunch of innocent pokemon!"

Rito was angered by this, and contested "Innocent? Listen kid, those Beedrill attacked and injured some of my friends and neighbors. My best friend's kid got stung badly, and had to be taken to Slateport to be hospitalized! We're not tryin' to hurt them, we're just tryin' to make 'em leave."

After a bit more convincing, Steph agreed to go, but she wouldn't help us. By now, all the townspeople who were in the little group were here, including one familiar face.

We didn't even know she was there until she called out "Steph!"

Steph looked out into the crowd, and her face erupted in a gigantic smile. "Loraina!" she cried. They both ran towards each other and embraced, both with huge smiles on their faces.

When they separated, Loraina was the first to speak. "How've you been?" she asked. "Where's Ron?"

Steph told her what happened.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she said. "That's just messed up. I can't believe he would do that to you."

"Its okay," she said, sniffling a little bit, but not crying. "Maybe we're all better off without him."

Loraina nodded, then looked over to me. "And what about you, Joe? How've you been?"

I laughed, and replied "I've been good. I won my first gym battle yesterday! It was so cool, I-"

"Yeah, don't care." she interrupted. She started laughing at the confused look on my face, then said "Just kidding! Ahh, that was funny. So what are you guys doing out here? Are you gonna come out with us to the nest?"

We told her that we were going with them, and she was excited. As the group walked, Loraina and I talked for a little bit. I found out that Loraina had received a letter from Wallace, the gym leader in Sootopolis city, and that she was going to be heading there in a couple of days to compete against other Water type trainers to see who would replace him. I was excited for her, and the two of us continued on walking.

After about an hour, we all reached the nest. It was huge. And noisy.

For almost a quarter of a mile, all the trees had been cut down. There were clean-cut diagonal slashes on all of them. Surrounding the bases of them, and in some places completely covering them, were enormous yellow-colored blobs with holes in them. These had to be the hives. Nearly a hundred Beedrill buzzed around, to and fro, all over the cleared area. Sitting in the center of the sea of yellow, cross-legged, seemingly meditating, was a man-shaped red pokemon. The moonlight glinted off of its skin, only it seemed to look like it was covered in metal.

"What the hell is that?" I whispered to Rito, who was standing next to me.

"I don't know," he whispered back. "But its sure as hell not a Beedrill queen, that's for damn sure."

Umbreon, who was standing to my side, suddenly tensed up, her golden bands glowing furiously. Three Beedrill, the nearest to us, began to fly in our direction. They knew we were here.

As they began to speed towards us, a few more joined in, and raced to reach us. Rito, Loraina, and the other townspeople, all took out their poke balls and brought out their pokemon. I ordered Umbreon to fire a shadow ball, and she blasted the Beedrill in the center straight out of the air.

Loraina's Pelipper flew straight into the ever-growing swarm and struck many of them hard with its wings and beak. Rito's pokemon, a Medicham, took down two of them with two quick, well-placed kicks. Alice's Zangoose slashed another one right out of the air and slammed it into the ground. The townspeople's pokemon engaged in combat with Beedrill all around the nest. However, even amidst the chaos surrounding us, the red pokemon never once even opened its eyes. It just sat there, meditating.

Umbreon took down another one with quick attack. Before she could get her guard back up, two beedrill rushed her from the sides, striking her with twineedle attacks simultaneously. She spun around, then fell on the ground. She couldn't get up, and her golden bands dimmed, back to the point where they were only faintly lit. I put her back into her poke ball mere seconds before the beedrill returned for another attack.

I took Ralts' ball from my belt and brought her out. She let out a long cry, and seemed to be scared from just how many beedrill were around us.

"Ralts, use psybeam on as many of them as you can!"

She began to charge up her beam. Six of them sped towards her, full speed, needles aimed straight at her.

Ralts fired. Three of them went down. The other three stopped in their tracks, turned around, and flew away.

She began firing beam after beam after beam at the ones that came near her. This went on for another two or three minutes. She was becoming visible tired. Her breaths became short, strained pants. One more came at her, and she fired just as it was about to strike her. It was down, but so was she.

Ralts fell to the floor, panting. I ran towards her, but the bright white light coming from her body made me stop. The light was so bright that it made all the pokemon in the clearing, beedrill and the others, to stop what they were doing and look in her direction.

The light, Ralts, stood up, and began to morph. It grew slightly taller. When the light faded, she looked very different, but also very the same. The mushroom-like appearance was gone. Instead, what made the top of her head split, and now hung from the sides of her head like hair. Instead of a single red horn, there were now two, on either side of her head. Her former legs stretched and split. Now they were sticking out to her sides, taking the form of what seemed like a miniskirt. Two long, green legs took their place.

"Kirlia" she called out. "Kirrr!"

Kirlia began to slowly form a purple bubble around her. Every single beedrill now focused their attention to her. They aimed their needles at her, and they started to glow white, now launching smaller, thinner, white needles at her. As soon as they hit the bubble, they stuck for a second, then fell off onto the ground. The townspeople looked on in awe.

When the Beedrill continued, Kirlia put down her bubble. She closed her eyes, and suddenly all of the needles stopped in midair, surrounded by a purplish glow. She quickly opened her eyes, and all of the needles went flying back at the beedrill, striking them numerous times. They hit the ground, then quickly got up and fled off into the woods.

Now, with all of the beedrill gone, the red pokemon opened its eyes, and stood up.

"Scizor." it called quietly.

"A Scizor," I whispered. "Get out of here! You and the Beedrill are hurting these people! You shouldn't be here!"

The pokemon, a Scizor, opened up its wings and fluttered them for a second, then it sped off towards Kirlia, angrily.

"Kirlia, barrier!"

She put her shield back up just in time to block Scizor from striking her with its massive steel claw. She put the shield down as it backed up, and she charged a psybeam. While she was busy building up energy, Scizor charged, striking her hard enough to send her flying ten feet back. She misfired, sending the beam straight up into the air. Kirlia tried to get back up, but the hit was too hard. I put her back into her ball.

"Medicham, lets-"

Rito tried to get involved, but I stopped him. "No, let me do this. Houndour, go!"

Houndour came out of his ball and roared, making a lot of the townspeople, many of them grown men, shiver in fear. The Scizor, unfazed, charged.

"Houndour, flamethrower!"

Houndour opened his mouth and let slip a stream of flames right into Scizor's path, engulfing it in flames. Scizor fell to the ground, and tumbled over and over again. It tried to lift itself up with its huge claws, but failed, and fell to the ground. Houndour released a thunderous roar of victory.

I took an empty poke ball from my backpack, and tossed it at Scizor. The ball turned Scizor into a bit of energy, then contained it inside. It rolled around for a second, glowing a bright red. Finally, it stopped, and returned to its original color. I picked up the ball and attached it to the next empty spot on my belt. The townspeople began to cheer.

While everyone was celebrating, Alice, Steph, and Loraina came up to me and we all congratulated each other. Finally, Rito came over and congratulated me.

"Thanks kid, that was some great stuff out there." he said. "I hope you bring it tomorrow, 'cause I'd hate to see you get taken down by my pokemon's raw fighting ability."

I smiled, laughed, and responded "Don't worry Rito, we'll give you everything we've got, and then some. I just hope your pokemon are stronger than those beedrill, otherwise you're giving up an easy victory."

He let out his hearty, bellowing laugh, and walked over to the rest of the crowd. Loraina said goodnight to us, and headed home. Steph, Alice, and I walked to the pokemon center to heal out pokemon. Umbreon had been poisoned by the beedrill, and Scizor's metal claw had done some serious damage to Kirlia. Also, Marshtomp had been pretty badly wounded by a stray bullet seed from one of the townspeople's pokemon.

Later on, back at the camp, Steph was the first to fall asleep. Umbreon was sleeping in my tent, and her light snoring, mixed with the crackling of the fire, were the only noises in the forest. Alice and I stayed up for a bit longer outside. She had that look in her eye again, like something was wrong. This time I wasn't going to just let it be.

"Is everything okay?" I asked her.

She smiled, and answered "Yeah, everything's okay. I mean, I'm okay."

I was confused. "What do you mean?"

"I mean I'm confused. Yesterday, when I was talking to Stephen, I remembered how much I liked him. I remembered how I felt about him. I couldn't help feeling a little bit of regret for leaving. I felt sorry for him."

I nodded. "I understand. Sometimes, you feel like maybe you made a mistake. Like maybe what you did was wrong, and they were right."

"But he wasn't right. He cheated on me, with my best friend. And she went along with it, knowing how much I cared about him. I hate them so much. After I found out about them, I thought I'd never like another guy like that again. But then yesterday, you kissed me. And I kissed you back. And I don't know what to make of that. I don't know how to explain my feelings for you, because I don't know how to explain my feelings about anything right now…" She put her head on her arms.

I scooted over to her, so that I was sitting right next to her. I put my arm around her, and pulled her close. She leaned into me, resting her head on my shoulder.

"Don't worry about it," I said. "You don't need to explain anything to me. I understand."

She looked up at me and smiled. I reciprocated. She put her head back onto my shoulder, and leaned closer, snuggling up nice and tight in my arms.

We sat there in the dark for another hour or so. Finally, she got up and went to her tent, and I went to mine. For the rest of the night, I laid there, wondering about what would happen next with me and Alice.

That's when I realized that I had a gym battle the next day, and I spent a long time trying to fall asleep.


	10. The Knuckle Badge

I slept in the next morning. Alice and Steph were already up, but I was tired as hell. Umbreon seemed to mirror my disposition, and stayed curled up next to me in the tent.

When I finally pulled it together and got up, Steph and Alice were sitting outside of their tents talking to Loraina. I slowly unzipped the door of the tent and crawled out, followed by Umbreon. We sat down in front of the tent and joined the conversation.

"Good morning, guys" I yawned. "Whats going on?"

Loraina spoke first. "Hey Joe, good morning. We were just talking about last night."

My muscles tensed up slightly. Had Alice told them what we talked about? I looked over at her, and she blushed and turned away. "What about last night?"

Loraina chuckled, and came back "Umm, the fight? Wow Joe, you must really have some bad memory, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess. So, guys, what time is it?"

Steph checked her poke gear, and said "Its just after 11:30. You really got some good sleep. We were just about to wake you up. Loraina had to tell you something."

"Rito came by my house earlier," Loraina tossed in. "He wanted me to come out here to find you. He said that your guys' battle is at 2:00, so you better get over there."

I yawned again, and replied "Okay, but can I eat breakfast first?"

Everyone laughed, and I cooked us up some food. After breakfast, I took Umbreon, Houndour, Kirlia, and Scizor on a quick run. Kirlia, since she didn't walk, just hovered about an inch off the ground. Scizor flew, of course. He was a bit distant, though. I don't think he really wanted to be a part of our group.

At 1:00, I put them all back in their balls, and Steph, Alice, Loraina, and I headed out to Rito's gym. We walked along the beach, admiring the calm waves and bright, golden-yellow sand. Alice, more than anyone, seemed to be especially enjoying the sight. She was walking a little bit behind us, so I dropped back to talk to her. I don't think Loraina and Steph noticed, since they were busy chatting amongst themselves.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey," she responded, still gazing out at the sea, hands in her pockets. "So, about last night…"

I looked down at the sand. "What about it?"

"Well, I want you to know that what I said, about how I feel about you, I mean. I just want to say that, well-"

I cut her off. "You don't have to say anything, Alice."

She looked at me, confused, and we smiled at each other. I moved my right hand and positioned it against the left side of her face, and slowly, gently pulled her towards me. We kissed, lightly, but still with a little passion.

"Eeeww!"

I looked up, startled, and saw Loraina pointing at us, and Steph laughing. I pulled away from Alice and said "You're just jealous cause I'm kissing her and not you!"

This made all four of us burst out laughing.

Finally, we arrived in town. There weren't quite as many people in the town as I'd originally thought. A lot of people were still indoors, no doubt resting and relaxing after last night. The people that were outside, however, congratulated me on the fight, and how I captured the Scizor. Suddenly, among the crowd of people who were beginning to gather, Rito rose up and walked over to us.

I shook his hand, and said "I'm ready for that battle, man."

His response was laughter, deep and loud. "Kid, I like that about you. Fast, and right to the point. Lets get going then, eh?"

We followed him to the gym. Alice, Steph, and Loraina sat in the stands around the field. It was a large, open space indoors, and on either side were seats rising up. At my last gym battle, there were only a few people watching. Now, it seemed like the whole town had gathered to watch our fight. It brought me to a whole new level of nervousness.

Rito stood on the far side, furthest away from the entrance. The referee was at the center edge of the field, ready to call the match.

"Are both participants ready for battle?" he shouted.

"Ready!" I called back.

"Yeah, lets do this!" Rito answered.

The ref nodded, and yelled out "Let the match begin!"

I took out Kirlia's ball, and tossed it out. She entered the field, standing with her feet touching each other, with all the grace and poise of a ballerina.

Rito took out his first pokemon. "Meditite, lets do this!"

Meditite was a small, blue and gray pokemon. It was just barely smaller than Kirlia, and seemed to like to sit.

"Kirlia, psybeam, go!"

Kirlia charged up her beam, and fired. Meditite swiftly moved out of the way. Kirlia fired another beam at him. This time he sat motionless.

"Meditite, detect!"

Meditite quickly jumped out of the way, just barely dodging the beam, and he fired a small burst of energy at Kirlia. However, she brought up her bubble, and it absorbed the attack.

I chuckled, and looked over at Rito. "You're good!"

He laughed, and replied "So are you, kid! But you're not good enough! Meditite, hidden power!"

Meditite formed a small circle of dark balls of energy around itself, and fired them each at Kirlia. They were all deflected by her bubble, but the final one broke through, knocking her back. Kirlia closed her eyes, and the space around Meditite began to glow a bright purple. Kirlia outstretched her arms, and Meditite rose up into the air, seeming to struggle to get back down. Finally, she opened her eyes, and sent meditite flying into the ground, knocking him out.

The ref lifted his right hand. "meditite is unable to battle. Kirlia is the winner."

Alice, Steph, and Loraina started to cheer loudly. The rest of the crowd was a mix of cheers and jeers, but they didn't matter to me.

Rito put meditite back into his ball, and took out another one. "Breloom, do work!"

His second pokemon looked like a cross between a kangaroo and a mushroom. Its body and the top if its head were green, and its neck and face were beige. "Breloom, mach punch!"

Breloom charged full speed at Kirlia. Before I could give her an order, she was struck hard, and went flying back towards me.

"Kirlia is unable to battle, Breloom is the winner!"

The referee's voice cut through the air, and struck me hard. I put Kirlia back into her ball, and tossed out Houndour's.

Houndour erupted into a magnificent roar, making many people in the crowd shiver, and making some of the men and boys holler and shout.

"Houndour, ember!"

Houndour spit some small flames from his mouth, but Breloom jumped out of the way, barely escaping being burnt. She started charging head-first towards Houndour, attempting to head butt him. Houndour jumped out of the way, and tackled her to the ground. He jumped up onto her, pinning her small arms to the ground.

Rito's face twisted in fear. "Breloom, get up!"

Houndour roared again, and Breloom jumped and knocked him down to the floor, starting to run back to Rito's side. Houndour fired a jet of flames, engulfing Breloom in fire before she could escape.

"Breloom is unable to continue. Houndour wins!"

This brought out another wave of shouts, cheers, and jeers from the crowd, but all I could hear was my heartbeat. It was racing, steadily pounding, like it was about to burst from my chest. I guess I still needed to get used to the excitement of battle.

Rito brought out his final pokemon, his Medicham. The pink and grey fighter looked as physically fit as I'd seen any pokemon in my life. He sped towards Houndour, jumped in the air, and spun around, bringing a heavy kick right down on Houndour's head. He tried to stop Medicham with a last-minute flamethrower, but it wasn't enough to get the job done.

"Houndour is unable to battle. Medicham wins!"

I put Houndour back into his ball. Umbreon, who I'd put into her ball just before the fight, was next. I knew I could count on her to do this. I had complete faith in her.

"Umbreon, go!"

She came out of her ball, howling lightly. She took a defensive stance, and charged at Medicham, jumping into a front flip just before impact, and slammed her back into Medicham's stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Before Umbreon could get off another attack, Medicham picked her up and tossed her a few feet away, just enough to get some distance.

"Medicham, psybeam!"

"Umbreon, shadow ball!"

The black ball of energy and the purplish-pink beam were on a collision course. They made contact, and seemed to be suspended in midair. For a couple of seconds, the beam held steady, and the ball spun forward, trying to force its way forward, through the beam. Finally, the confliction duo burst into a dazzling explosion of energy, sending both pokemon sliding back.

"Umbreon, faint attack!"

Umbreon moved so fast, it seemed that she had teleported. First she was ten feet away, then five, then she was right behind Medicham. He didn't have enough time to react, and by the time he sensed her there, it was too late. Umbreon rushed forward, and knocked Medicham through the air with a single full-body attack. Medicham skidded for a little bit, then he flipped over and over again, finally coming to a stop. He got up to his feet, but turned around just as Umbreon fired a shadow ball at him. The ball struck right in the center of his stomach, knocking him right back down. He attempted to get up, but fell.

"Medicham is unable to continue. Umbreon is the winner! The match goes to the challenger, Joe!"

The crowd erupted in cheers, I guessed I'd won them over. Alice, Steph, and Loraina jumped over the edge of the stands, onto the field, and ran over to where I was standing to congratulate me. I picked up Umbreon in my arms, and spun her around. She was smiling brightly, and seemed to be laughing. I put her down just as my friends arrived. Alice jumped up, and wrapped her arms around my neck, her feet up in the air. I had to put my arms around her just to keep myself balanced.

When I put her down, Steph and Loraina both gave me hugs, albeit not as enthusiastic, or enjoyable as Alice's hug was. After their congratulations, Rito came over to where we were standing.

"Hey, that was a great battle, kid. Your pokemon are strong." He held out his hand to me.

I shook his hand, and said "Thanks, man. Your pokemon were pretty tough themselves."

He roared in laughter, and finally announced "Well, you've beaten me, fair and square, kid. I think you've earned this."

He took a small fist-shaped badge out of his pocket, and handed it to me. "You've just won the Knuckle badge."

I took the badge and placed it in its slot in my badge case. After a round of congratulations from the crowd that was watching us, the three of us headed off to Mr. Briney's boat. We were about to board, when we heard someone shout my name.

"Joe, wait!"

I looked out, and I saw Loraina running towards us, with her backpack and suitcase. "Can you guys give me a ride to Slateport," she asked.

"Well, of course, m'dear!" replied Mr. Briney. "Lets get a'movin, now, shall we, kids"

The four of us on board, we pulled out of the Dewford docks, and headed off to Slateport.

The ride was pretty much uneventful. We all just relaxed, and watched the sea speed by as Mr. Briney pushed us full speed across the ocean. Steph and Loraina were on the rear end of the boat, their pokemon swimming or flying alongside us. We were moving fast, but not that fast. Alice and I were on the top deck, sitting beside each other. Her arms were stretched out behind her for support, and my right arm was wrapped around her waist. Her head was lolled to one side, resting on my shoulder. When she closed her eyes, I looked over at her and watched as her deep, auburn hair rose into the air just behind her, carried by the wind. While I was looking at her, Umbreon came over and curled up in my lap. I looked down at her and ran my hand along her back, petting her.

We arrived at Slateport beach around 7:00, quicker than any of us had expected. Loraina said goodbye to us, as she headed to the docks on the other side of the city. Her ferry to Sootopolis city was there, and she needed to get there as quick as possible. The rest of us, however, went off to eat, then to find a hotel for the night.

On our way to the hotel, we passed by a museum, and I thought it would be a good idea to check it out. After a bit of complaining from Alice, we agreed to head in. However, none of us were prepared for the surprise that lay in wait for us.

The first floor was crowded with Team Magma agents. There wasn't a single space in the room where we couldn't see their signature red and black. But that wasn't even the biggest shock.

Heading up the stairway to the second floor was a tall man with bright, fiery red hair. He didn't wear the traditional Magma garb. He had long black pants, and a black and red coat. From the way he carried himself, he could've been their leader.

Just behind him, following him up the stairs, was Ron.


	11. Fight at the Museum

_Joe_

Steph was in shock. I could tell she was close to tears, but she dared not let them flow here, now. We were surrounded by the enemy, and Ron was just above us. I gripped her hand and whispered in her ear.

"Stay calm. Don't tip them off, or we might have to fight our way out of here. Can you do that for me?"

She bit her lower lip back, then nodded.

I looked over at Alice. "Stay here with Steph. I'm going up there to see whats going on. Make sure she stays here. If any of them make you out, don't fight, theres too many of them. Get out and get to the pokemon center, I'll meet you guys there, Ok?"

"Sure," she whispered. "Got 'ya, Joe. Be careful, okay?" She threw her arms around me and pulled me in tight.

When she released, I kissed her cheek. "I'll be okay, just remember what I said." I set off up the stairs after Ron.

I tried to go at it stealthily. There was a Magma agent in the stairwell, and before he spotted me, I hit him in the side of the head. He was down, I hoped it would be long enough. When I got to the top, the redheaded man was talking to an old man in a sailor's uniform. Ron was standing nearby. It looked like he was the redhead's bodyguard. I was able to sneak into the room, and I hid behind a small exhibit.

"Now, you see," the redhead was calmly speaking, "I need those parts, captain. If you don't hand them over to me, well, then I guess I'm just going to have to take them from you."

"I'm telling' ya," the old man was almost frantic, "I don' have the parts yet! There 'posed to be summun on 'eir way to deliver 'em, but 'e ain't 'ere yet!"

"Well then," replied the redhead, "I suppose we'll just have to wait for them, now, won't we?"

"If by that 'ya mean yer gonna take me pris'ner, then 'at ain't bloody likely! Yer not gon' be doin' nothing to me 'at ain't been done before. I been bruised, an' beaten, an' yer not gonna be doin' nothing to me I ain't done or had done t' me before, you lit'le punk!"

The captain spit in the redhead's face. He slowly wiped it off. "Well then, my friend. I see you choose to act like a child, instead of a gentleman. I may not be willing to sully my hands with garbage like you, but my soldiers will."

Ron started moving towards the old man, an evil smirk on his face. He grabbed the man's collar and lifted his fist, but just before he struck, the Magma agent from the stairwell came running in.

"Sir," he called. "I've been attacked! There's someone in this room!"

The Magma leader turned to face him. "Understood. Ronald, you know what to do."

Ron nodded his head, and took out a poke ball. "Whoever's in here, come out now, and maybe I'll let you go with just a scratch of two!"

I took out Umbreon's poke ball, and got ready for battle. I stood up, and made my presence known.

_Alice_

It had been a couple minutes since Joe had gone up the stairs. Steph and I tried to remain inconspicuous, and I think we succeeded. We got a couple shifty looks from some of the Magma guys, but nothing that looked really serious.

We looked around the museum, waiting for Joe to come back down. In one of the corners, there was a girl with a black trench coat. She had big, black sunglasses on, so we could only see the bottom half of her face. On her head was a black fedora, matching the jacket. Her hair, though, hung out of the back. It was long, and blonde. She'd been there literally the whole time we had, just staring at the same painting.

"Hey, Steph," I whispered. "what do you think is up with her?"

Steph, who was still trying to keep a straight face, and not start crying, looked up at the girl. She took a couple seconds, then lightly chuckled. She put on her best "valley girl" impersonation, and replied. "Well, I guess she looks pretty, but that jacket is just so ugh!"

The two of us started laughing a little bit, but we stopped when we heard an explosion above. There was a fight.

Suddenly, a Magma agent ran down the stairs, and started shouting. "Intruders! We've got intruders!" He pointed at us. "Them! Get them!"

The Magma guys all around us, there were at least a dozen of them, started yelling and hollering, and moving towards us, poke balls in hand. "Its Team Aqua!", "We've been infiltrated!", "Get the traitors!"

Suddenly, the girl in the back corner started walking towards us. The Magma guys didn't see her, they were focused on us. She ripped off her trench coat, hat, and sunglasses. Underneath were long, blue pants, a black tube top, and a tiny blue coat over it. She was wearing a blue bandana, with a skull and crossbones in the shape of a large 'A' in the middle of it.

"No, they're not!" she shouted, drawing their attention. "I am!"

Every Magma guy in the room stopped, and got dead silent. Steph and I were in the center of a circle created by them, back to back, with our poke balls ready. They were all staring at her, and one of them started shouting.

"Crap, run! Its Haley, run everybody!"

Nearly all of the guys started running for the door, but four of them stayed, ready to battle. The blonde, Haley, took out a poke ball and tossed it, bringing out a Crawdaunt. Steph and I tossed our poke balls, and brought out Zangoose and Marshtomp.

Haley smiled, and said "You two should get out of here. This isn't any place for a couple of kids." Her voice was a bubbly, and she spoke in a British accent.

Steph was the first to respond. "We're not going anywhere. Our friend is upstairs, we need to wait for him."

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Haley, at your service. I'm an admin with Team Aqua, dedicated to expanding the world's seas and oceans. These Magma wanks are in our way, and I've got intel that their leader is here today."

One of the Magma guys spoke up. "You Aqua fools aren't gonna get anywhere NEAR Maxie! He's got our best guy, Ron, guarding him! Besides, you're gonna have to get through us if you want to get out of here alive!"

Haley sighed. "Lets get this over with, then. Crawdaunt, bubble beam!"

_Joe_

"Well, well, well," Ron started. "If it isn't my old buddy Joe. How's Steph, by the way? She over me yet?"

"That's none of your business anymore, Ron. What the hell are you doing here? Why did you join these losers?"

The redhead decided it was time to add to the conversation. "Ronald, do you know this trash? Who is he?"

Ron smiled, and answered. "He's an old friend, someone from my time under cover. He's nobody, uncle Maxie. I'll take care of him."

I was confused. "Wait a minute, do you mean that you were undercover the whole time?"

"Yeah, that's exactly it, Joe. Now, I'm going to ask you to leave, or else I'm gonna have to make you."

I tossed Umbreon's poke ball, and she came out ready. Ron tossed his poke ball. I expected to see Poocheyena, but instead, out came a large blue and purple bat pokemon.

"Golbat, supersonic!"

"Umbreon, move!"

Umbreon dodged the sonic waves coming out of Golbat's mouth. She fired a shadow ball directly at Golbat, barely missing. It hit the roof, and made a small explosion of energy. He flew down, rushing Umbreon and striking her with the left wing. Umbreon quickly recovered, and hit back with a faint attack. Golbat hit the ground, and Umbreon finished him with a quick attack.

Ron put Golbat back in his ball. The second pokemon was a Mightyena, and it looked pissed off.

"Joe, you have to understand that I did what I did for a reason. We need to talk!"

"I've got nothing to say to you! Umbreon, quick attack!"

Mightyena dodged the attack, and head butted Umbreon. She went flying into a wall, knocking her out. I put her back into her ball and brought out Scizor. He clobbered Mightyena with one of its massive, steel claws, knocking him off balance.

"Uncle," shouted Ron. "Get out of here! There's no doubt the police are on their way. If you get caught, then everything we've worked for is for nothing!"

Maxie nodded, then ran out the back door and down a fire escape.

"Joe, listen to what I have to say!"

"Shut the hell up, Ron! Scizor, fury cutter, go!"

Scizor sped towards Mightyena, his right claw glowing brightly. He struck Mightyena along the side, knocking him unconscious. Ron called him back, then sent out what looked like an upright standing chicken.

"Combusken, fire punch!"

Combusken rushed at Scizor. He tried to dodge, but the punch was too quick. Just the single punch was enough to send Scizor flying into a support pillar. I put him back into his ball. Next was Kirlia.

"Kirlia, psybeam!"

The beam just barely missed Combusken, who dodged at the last second.

Damn, I thought to myself. She's just too fast!

Kirlia fired another beam, again missing by an inch. Combusken struck Kirlia with one of its legs, knocking her down. She got up, but only to be struck down with a powerful fire punch. I put her back into her ball, and brought out Houndour, my final pokemon.

Ron laughed. "Fine, have it that way the, Joe. I thought that since we were friends you would listen voluntarily, but I guess I'll have to make you!"

"The key word in that sentence is 'were'. I've lost my respect for you. The whole time, you were just trying to- what the hell WERE you doing, Ron? None of us have anything to do with Magma, so why?"

"You'll see. But first, Combusken, mega kick!"

Combusken swung its thick, bright orange thigh at Houndour. He dodged, and blasted a stream of flames from his mouth. Combusken used its own flamethrower attack to dissuade the attack. Houndour released a monstrous roar, but Combusken wasn't phased. Houndour rushed forward to head butt Combusken, but just as he was about to strike, Combusken threw a massive uppercut, sending Houndour flying into the roof. When he came down, he crashed into the floor, struggling to get to his feet.

"Houndour, flamethrower!"

Houndour let slip another long stream of flames from his mouth, but Combusken jumped to dodge it. She bounded from one side of the room to the other, kicking off from the walls. Finally, after its last jump, she charged up a fireball around her right fist, and struck Houndour, knocking him unconscious, and sending him flying into me. I fell down. I was in too much pain to even try to get up.

_Alice_

Above us we could hear more explosions, but we couldn't take our focus off of the battle down here. The four Mightyena that our pokemon faced were tough. Haley and her Crawdaunt took two at once, while Steph and I each faced one.

Haley's Crawdaunt made quick work of both of her enemies. We could tell that she was a skilled trainer.

"Zangoose, crush claw!"

Zangoose' powerful swipe struck the Mightyena on the rear, just as it was trying to dodge the attack. This caused it to fall to the ground in pain. Zangoose finished it off with slash. The Magma guy followed the other two out of the museum. Now it was just down to Steph.

Marshtomp was able to do heavy damage to Mightyena. He blasted it with water gun straight in the face, sending it flying into a glass casing. Mightyena got up, but Marshtomp finished it off with mud shot. Finally, the last Magma guy took off running and left.

Steph was out of breath, and so was Marshtomp, but we had to find Joe.

"Guys," I said. "We need to get upstairs, I think Joe might be in trouble!"

Haley's face was shocked. "Do you mean to say that your friend took on Maxie by himself? That kid's got courage, but we need to go help him, now!"

We nodded, and ran up the stairs, Haley in the lead.

_Joe_

Ron walked over to me slowly, with Combusken taking a defensive stance just next to him. "I tried to tell you, but you just wouldn't listen. I went under cover to try to recruit you. I told my uncle about you and your Umbreon. He thought that you would be valuable assets to our cause. With you on our side, Joe, we could make our plans come to fruition, we could change the world! But then I met Steph. I really, truly did love her. Back in that cave, Allan would've seriously hurt her. If I didn't break cover, he wouldn't have stopped until he'd removed her as a threat."

I started groaning in pain. "I don't believe you. You never loved her, you're just saying that to cover your own butt."

He sighed, and put Combusken back into her ball. "See it in whatever way you want, Joe."

Suddenly, I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Ron heard them too, and started running for the back exit. Up the stairs came a blonde girl in blue and black. Just behind her were Steph and Alice. They helped me up to my feet, and I put Houndour back into his ball.

The blonde walked over to me and grabbed my shoulders. "Where did he go? Where is Maxie?"

"He went out the back exit, so did Ron! Who the hell are you!"

Without answering my question, she ran out through the exit, running with purpose.

Alice ran and hugged me violently. The shock to my ribs made me shout out in pain.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" she said, worried. "What happened, where are you hurt?"

"I'll tell you later. Where did the captain go?"

The old man, who had been hiding behind an exhibit, stood up. "I'm right 'ere, kids. Are you th' one 'ats supposed ter bring me th' parts?"

"Yeah, that's me. Are you captain Stern?"

"Aye, that be me, boyo. C'mon, we need t' be getting back to th' dockyard. You three can stay at my house, tonight. I'm not gonna be there anyways. Lots of work t'do at th' docks, you know. "

"Thanks captain. Come on guys, lets go."

On the way to the captain's house, we each filled each other in on what had just happened. I told Steph about what Ron had said, and she seemed to not care. I could tell that there was something else, though. I knew she cared, she just didn't want to show it. Alice told me about Haley and Team Aqua.

"Great," I said. "Another gang of eco-terrorists to worry about."

They started laughing, and I laughed too, even though I didn't really mean it as a joke.

That night, I couldn't sleep. I got up and walked over to the living room. The captain's house wasn't too big, but it was spacious enough for me to get lost a little bit. I found Steph sitting by the fireplace. She was just staring into the flames, silently. I sat down next to her.

"Are you okay?"

She sighed. "I think so. I mean, I still love him, but I think I can let go. I just can't stop thinking that we're going to have to see him again. I'm sure that now they're going to be after us, we know about them!"

I smiled and put my arm around her. "Don't worry about them. I'm pretty sure that between the three of us, we can handle them."

She smiled back. "So whats the plan now?"

"Well, we're going to head north. The next gym is in Mauville city, just up the road. It's a little far, but we can make it."

Steph yawned. "Sounds great. Well, I'm off to bed. See you in the morning." She got up and went to her room upstairs. As she was going up, Umbreon slowly walked down and curled up on my lap.

I sat there for a few more minutes, thinking about what Ron had said. Why were they after me? Why would they want me to join them? I fell asleep before I could come up with an answer.


	12. Alex, Houndoom, and New Plans

I'd woken up before the others the next morning. I decided that we needed some more food before we left for Mauville city, since we would have to camp out at least once. I left a note and headed out with Umbreon.

The Slateport market was a huge conglomeration of a bunch of small food stands lining up on either side of a long pathway. There was a faint fishy smell to the place, but I figured that it was because we were so close to the sea. We'd been out shopping for about an hour when I heard someone calling my name.

"Joe! Hey, Joe, over here!"

I looked around to find the source of the shouting, finally turning all the way around. About four stands behind me was an a short girl, about a foot shorter than me. She had black hair, but it was kind of difficult to determine unless you'd known it before, since there was a mix of purple and green coloring to her hairdo. Her name was Alex, and she was a good friend of mine from Littleroot town. I remembered she'd moved away about a year or two ago. She skipped her way over to me, absolutely beaming.

When she got to where I was, she jumped up and hugged me vigorously, both of us laughing. It was easy for me to put my arms all the way around her tiny body, she was really slim, but it was since she loved to play sports and stuff. After a minute, I finally put her down.

"Alex, what the hell are you doing out here?" I asked, incredulously. "I haven't seen you in forever!"

"I could ask you the same thing! I'm headed to Fallarbor town to visit a cousin of mine. What about you, Joe? What are you doing here?"

"I'm trying to get all the badges so I can go to the Hoenn league tournaments. I'm out here with some friends of mine, Alice and Steph. You remember Steph, right?"

She took a moment to think, then smiled. "Yeah, I remember her! Black hair, red streaks, right? Is she still with that one guy, Ron, or whatever his name was?"

I sighed, and told her the story of Steph, Ron, and team Magma. Everything from the day we met up with them in Petalburg woods up until yesterday. She was noticeably surprised.

"Wow, that's just messed up. I feel so bad for her, where is she?"

"Her and Alice are back at Captain Stern's house. He let us stay the night there, we're gonna head out to Mauville later today. Hey, I've got a great idea! Why don't you come along with us!"

She smiled. "That sounds great! Its on the way to Fallarbor, so yeah, I think I'll go with you guys. Maybe there'll be some fun on the way, I've been bored the whole trip so far." She looked at my belt, at the poke balls attached to it. "Hey, now I've got an idea!"

"Really? What would that be?"

She smiled. "How about a battle? One on one, yeah?"

I chuckled lightly. "You're on, sister!"

We walked down to the beach, where there was a large area of open sand. It was still early enough in the morning where it wasn't packed with surfers and beach-bums. There were some steps leading down from the market, since it was at the top of a small cliff. We went out close to the waves, and I looked up at the top of the cliff. About a mile down, I could see the Captain's house overlooking the ocean.

"You ready!" Alex called out.

"Ready as I'll ever be!" I took a ball off of my belt. "Houndour, lets go!"

Houndour came out of his ball, shook his head, and released an eerie howl, which carried across the beach and up to the cliff. I could see a small group of people up there, leaning against the guard railing.

Alex took a ball from out of her pocket. "Manectric, come on out!"

Out of the ball came a small dog-like pokemon. Its body was almost completely blue, except for a few areas. For instance, most of its head other than the areas around the eyes, the fur was colored yellow. It was the same with the rear leg joints, the fur around them was a large yellow bunch.

"Manectric," she shouted. "Use thunder shock, go!"

The small creature charged up small bits of electricity around its body. The hairs were simply crackling with energy. He fired a thin yellow bolt straight for Houndour, who jumped up in the air, dodging it.

"Houndour, flamethrower!"

While still in the air, Houndour released a jet of flames from its mouth. The hot stream grazed Manectric, as he tried to dodge it. The area where it touched was smoking lightly, and had small scorch marks. The two pokemon rushed at each other in an attempt to tackle each other. They struck hard, and both fell to the ground, dazed. Both of them struggled to get up, finally doing so after a few seconds. They took defensive stances and growled at each other.

By now the crowd at the top of the cliff had grown in size, pretty much having doubled since we started. Some people were starting to cheer, for both Houndour and Manectric. Their calls carried down to the beach, I heard someone shout "Get 'em, Joe!". The voice sounded familiar, so I looked up at the cliff. Right there in front were Alice and Steph. I figured they'd seen the battle from the house.

Houndour and Manectric each fired a charged bolt of energy, flames from Houndour and electricity from Manectric. The attacks met in the center, with explosive results. A huge sand plume was kicked up, and I had to put my arm up to shield my eyes. Alex did the same thing, on the other side of the field. Houndour and Manectric, however, continued to battle it out, sand cloud or not.

I could hear their attacks hitting the ground, even though I couldn't see them. Finally, after a minute, the cloud settled and we could see. There wasn't much left to see, though. Manectric was on the ground, with Houndour's front right paw on his side. Houndour was standing in a triumphant pose, victorious. He let out an earth-rattling roar, sending our viewers into an uproar. When he finished, he began to glow a brilliant white color. Everything went silent.

From the head grew two long horns, curving backwards. His snout grew out an inch, and became a little bit thinner. The tail lengthened significantly, coming to an arrow-shaped end. His legs also became longer, as he was now almost half my size on all fours. Finally, the light subsided, and Houndour had become Houndoom. He released another howl, much to the amusement of the spectators. I rushed over and hugged Houndoom, who began to lick my face ecstatically. Umbreon, who had been at my side, trotted over and began to rub her face against Houndoom's.

Alex put Manectric back into his ball, and walked over to us. "Wow, that was so much fun! Congratulations on Houndour evolving, I've never seen it in person, that was amazing!"

Houndoom looked up at her angrily, then jumped up and knocked her down. I was about to shout for him to stop, but he began to lick her face happily. She burst out in laughter, trying to get Houndoom off of her. I was able to, finally, and I put him back into his ball. I took her hand to help her up, and gave her a hug.

"That was a really cool battle, Alex. I actually thought you were going to win there for a second, haha."

"Hey, you beat me this time," she said with a smile. "but next time you won't be so lucky. I'll get you, don't worry!"

Alice and Steph rushed down the stairs to come out to where we were. I ran over to them, and Alice jumped up and wrapped herself around me, arms around my neck and legs around my waist.

"Joe, that was amazing, just so great!" she began. I hugged her tight, then put her down. "That was… I mean… it was just so… WOW!" she continued. She tried to keep going on, but she started stammering and stuttering, so I shut her up with a kiss.

"Calm down," I said. "It wasn't really anything major, just a battle. I just can't believe Houndour evolved!"

Steph gave me a tight hug. "That was great, Joe! Congratulations!" She looked over at Alex, and squinted. "Alex, is that you!"

Alex nodded, and with a smile, responded "Yeah, its me Steph. How've you been?" Steph and Alex hugged, and started talking and catching up.

We all decided to go out for a quick lunch before heading out. Over a lunch consisting of pizza, garlic breadsticks, and unlimited soda refills, I told Alice and Steph about Alex coming along with us. Steph was completely complacent with the plan, but Alice was a bit more reserved.

I couldn't be exactly sure of it, but it seemed like Alice was jealous of her. The whole time we were there, when her eyes weren't on me they were on Alex. It seemed like she was watching her, or something. Finally, when I went to get a refill of my soda, I asked Alice to come with me.

"Hey, is everything okay?" I asked.

She made her face into a confused twist. "What do you mean? Of course everything's okay, why do you ask?"

"Well," I started, "it just seems like you might be a little bit, I don't know, jealous, or something." I prepared for the worst.

She laughed. "Now Joe, why would you think that? I'm not jealous at all. I just think that, oh, I don't know, a pretty girl shows up from your past, and now wants to travel with us, I find it a little suspicious."

I took a step back. "Wait, what are you saying? Do you think that, what, she's going to try to seduce me, or something?" She started filling up her cup. "Your words, not mine, Joe."

I lightly laughed, then put my arms around her waist. "Don't worry about a thing, Alice. Me and Alex are just friends, who haven't seen each other in a long time. Like I told you guys, she's heading to Fallarbor town, and I thought it would be a good idea for us all to go together, since Mauville is on the way."

She nestled her head against my neck, and I leaned my head against hers. "But what if she tries something with you?" she asked, her voice taking a slightly worried tone. "What if she does try to seduce you, or something? What then?"

I gently kissed her on the cheek, then let go of her. "Don't worry, I trust her not to. Its not like that between us, Alice. It never was. Besides, you're the only pretty girl that I want to pay any attention to."

She turned around to face me. Her eyes were widened with a slight bit of sadness behind them. Her beautiful lips were fixed into an enchanting smile. "Really?"

I kissed her again, and replied "Really. Now come on, we need to eat. We need to leave soon if we want to get any decent distance behind us." She smiled, and after a quick hug we went back to the table.

Finally, at around one-thirty, the four of us left Slateport city. We got in a good five hours of walking time, and about five miles. The areas alongside the pathway were beautiful. The grass blew from left to right in the light breeze. The path ran along a strip of land that was in between two bodies of water, with an inlet of the ocean to the east, and a small lake to the west. Both waters glistened in the sunlight. Dozens of pokemon jumped in and out of the lake and the inlet, water pokemon and regular pokemon alike. When it started to get dark, we set up camp.

Late that night, all of us were sleeping when I heard a noise outside my tent. I was getting up when I heard a loud scream. Alice, I thought, as I jumped up and stepped outside of my tent.

Alice was sitting next to her tent, knees up in front of her face, with her arms around them. "Joe, get it away!"

She was staring at a large, purplish blob, just a few feet away. Its mouth was puckered up, as if it were about to kiss something. On its sides were two long, thick hairs, and there were black diamonds all around its body. The damn thing was huge, only smaller than me by a couple inches.

"What the hell is that!"

Alex, who had just stepped out of her tent, answered me. "it's a Swalot! Whoa, that is so cool! I wanna-"

"Marshtomp, go!"

Steph, who came up out of nowhere, tossed out Marshtomp. There was a fire in her eyes that I hadn't seen in awhile. Alex, who was no doubt about to try to capture it, sat back, arms crossed, and her face in a defeated pout.

"Marshtomp, mud shot!"

Marshtomp kicked up a thick clod of mud, and tossed it straight for Swalot. The clod hit right between his eyes, both knocking him back flat on the ground and blinding him. The Swalot got back up, and spat up a thick, viscous ball of purple phlegm, spitting it right at Marshtomp. He dodged, and blasted a stream of water, knocking Swalot back down onto the ground.

Steph grabbed an empty poke ball from her bag and tossed it at Swalot. He turned into a red cloud of energy, and entered the ball. It rolled around, side to side for a couple of seconds. Finally, the ball stopped rolling and made a clicking noise.

"Oh, YEAH!" shouted Steph. She jumped up in the air, and then picked up the poke ball. "Cool, I got a Swalot!"

Alex went back into her tent. "That was supposed to be mine…" she whispered. Steph heard her, though.

"Don't worry," she said, chidingly. "I'll let you get the next one we see, okay?"

We all laughed, and went back to bed.


	13. The Clearing Attack

_Joe_

Alex and I were sitting outside our tents talking the next morning. It was early, very early, and we were the only two up. The grass around us was waist high when we stood up, so sitting down we could barely see over it. The sun was just barely holding under the horizon, giving the sky a violet-red color. There were some clouds gathering off to the west, and I took that to mean that it was going to rain soon.

"Oh, I can't wait for the rain," I said to Alex as we sat there. "I love rain, the smell, the cool air, its just so awesome!"

"Hah, speak for yourself," replied Alex. "I hate the rain. It gets all over your clothes, and they start to smell. And all it takes is one hole in your tent for it to get completely soaked."

I heard movement in my tent, and opened it up as Umbreon came out. She yawned, then sat down next to me, stretching. I started petting her, then I looked back up to Alex.

"Say what you want, but its gonna be great. You're just grumpy cause Steph caught that Swalot last night and you didn't."

She picked up a small rock and threw it at me, barely missing my shoulder. "Shut up about that! If I hadn't already been laying down, I would've totally caught it! Anyways, Steph probably doesn't even know crap about them. I'll bet she doesn't even know what type it is, or what moves it can use!"

I laughed. "Yeah, she probably doesn't. I'm sure she'll figure it out eventually, though, haha."

We both laughed at this, then Alex looked into my eyes. "So Joe, whats up with you and this Alice chick? Every time I look at you guys, she's got that lovey-dovey look in her eyes."

I smiled. "Well, I don't really know. I mean, I'm pretty sure we're together, but we haven't really made anything official yet."

"That's cool, Joe. I never really figured you as a 'redhead' kinda guy, I'm surprised."

"Whats so surprising about it?"

"Nothing, nothing, forget I said anything." She started fiddling with a bracelet on her left wrist. It was silver, and looked like a small chain with little figures attached to it. There was a small, wooden wolf paw, a silver and ruby guitar, and what looked like half a heart, split down the middle. She seemed entranced by it.

"Whats that?" I asked.

She took a second to answer. "Just something somebody gave me awhile back. Back when I was living in Littleroot. Its nothing, don't worry about it."

Suddenly, Umbreon jumped up into a defensive stance, teeth bared. Then we heard something moving nearby. The tall grass could've hid just about anything short enough. We didn't want to take the chance of it being nothing, so I woke up Alice while Alex woke up Steph. They got out and called out Zangoose and Marshtomp. Alex brought out Manectric.

"What is it, whats going on?" asked Steph.

"Joe, whats happening?" asked Alice.

"I don't know, I think there's something out there." I started shouting. "Who's out there? We know you're there! Come out now!"

Before she could react Umbreon was hit with two short, thin, bright needles in her side, knocking her down. She got back up, but was hit again, this time from the other side.

"Umbreon, shadow ball, go!"

Umbreon, with a little bit more effort than before, got back to her feet and fired a blast of dark energy into the grass, cutting a trail through it. Nothing was there.

"Zangoose," called out Alice, " sniff 'em out!"

Zangoose jumped into the grass, disappearing almost instantly. It would've been hard to know where he was, other than the sounds of grass rustling. Suddenly, we heard the wind rushing, and the grass bent violently in our direction, forced down by the wind. It was so strong that all of us except for the pokemon were knocked down. I looked up, and I could see a Swellow, just past where the grass started to bend.

Alex got to her feet. "Manectric, thunderbolt!"

Manectric charged up its fur, then released a thick bolt of electricity, striking the Swellow as it tried to dodge. He fell to the ground, but suddenly two large Ninjask rushed from the nearby grass. One struck Manectric's hind legs, the other struck his front legs, sending him into a spin, and making him trip up and fall to the ground. Then they disappeared into the grass.

I jumped up to my feet, shocked. "Its Stephen and those two bikers! Come on guys, we gotta fight back! Umbreon, find them and take them down!"

Umbreon nodded, but suddenly she was charged from her left side. Stephen's bulky Vigoroth shoulder-blocked her, throwing his arms up and sending her flying into the air. She landed somewhere off in the grass.

Before I could turn to run after Umbreon, Vigoroth charged me and knocked me to the ground, roaring in victory. However, while Vigoroth was busy gloating over me, Zangoose struck him with quick attack, and the two began battling, claws raised. I picked myself up and ran into the grass to find Umbreon.

_Steph_

I saw Umbreon fly into the grass, and Joe run after her. I hoped he would be okay, but with these guys we could never completely let our guard down.

Marshtomp was down on all fours, looking out into the grass.

"Marshtomp, foresight!"

Marshtomp began scanning the area more closely. Two needles flew out of the grass towards him, but he tossed up a thick clod of mud, in which the needles got stuck. A Ninjask rushed out from behind him.

"Marshtomp, behind you!"

He quickly turned around and flung another mud ball at the ninjask, striking it and making it fall to the ground, covered. Marshtomp picked up the ninjask and threw it into the air.

"Marshtomp, water gun, full blast!"

Marshtomp fired a powerful jet of water after the ninjask, accelerating it into the air. The ninjask flew at least twenty feet away, when a red beam of energy hit it.

"Ninjask, come back!" I heard someone shout out. It had to be Robert. His other ninjask shot out from the grass, striking Marshtomp's leg with one of its claws, then ducking back into the grass. Marshtomp faltered, but then stood up on its rear legs.

"Robert!" I shouted. "Quit being a little wimp and come out here and face me!" I waited a second, and he stepped out, smiling.

"You guys should've just surrendered. Now we're gonna take you down, one by one. Ninjask, slash!"

The Ninjask erupted out of the grass, full speed towards Marshtomp.

"Marshtomp, foresight!"

Marshtomp focused on ninjask. A split second before it made contact, Marshtomp grabbed it in one of his hands, and slammed it into the ground.

"Ninjask, get up!"

Ninjask fluttered its wings in an attempt to regain flight. Marshtomp let rip another jet of water from its mouth, putting ninjask down for good.

"AHH! OH NO!" shouted Robert. "Ninjask, come back!" After regaining Ninjask, Robert turned tail and ran.

_Alex_

I didn't know who the other guys were, but I'd seen this pokemon somewhere before, I could swear on it. Except when I saw it, it was still a taillow. The markings on its tail were the only thing that was similar.

"Manectric, thunderbolt!"

Manectric's second thunderbolt missed, as Swellow had already recovered and flown low into the grass. Suddenly, a tall, thin kid with straight, black hair hanging over his left eye stood up from the grass. "Hello Alex. Long time no see."

"Frank!" I said, shocked. "What are you doing here?"

"We're after them, not you. Get out of here Alex, I don't want to hurt you!"

Frank was my ex-boyfriend, from Oldale town. We broke up on good terms: I had to leave to live with my grandma, and I couldn't handle a long distance relationship. "I can't do that, Frank. They're my friends, and I have to protect them! Leave them alone, we don't have to fight!"

He shook his head, making that gorgeous hair of his swing from side to side. I always loved his hair. "Alex, I can't. Please, get out of my way, or I'll have swellow attack you, and I don't want to do that." Swellow rose up and flew circles above his head.

"Manectric, thunder!"

Manectric fired an extra-powerful bolt of lightning at swellow, who dodged.

"Alex, I'm sorry. Swellow, agility, then a wing attack, go!"

Swellow picked up speed, and dodged two more thunderbolts from Manectric. Next, he dived down, and struck Manectric at full speed, knocking him back, then heading back up into the air. Manectric got back to his feet, and fired another blast of electricity, catching swellow and sending it straight at Frank. Swellow began a tailspin, and struck Frank directly in the chest, knocking him down.

"I'm sorry Frank, but you've got to get out of here."

Frank got to his feet and put swellow back into its ball. "Sorry we had to meet like this, Alex."

"Yeah, me too." I said. Then he left.

I turned around to rejoin the others. I didn't see the giant claw swinging my way. I did, however, feel it connect with my stomach, and knock me into the air.

_Alice_

Joe rushed into the grass to find Umbreon, leaving us to fight with the others. I didn't blame him, I would've done the same for Zangoose. I saw Vigoroth make to chase after him, but I decided to give him some cover.

"Zangoose, crush claw!"

Zangoose ran at Vigoroth, swinging his purple claw viciously, but barely scratching Vigoroth's stomach as he jumped back at the last second.

"Alice, do you really think that you can beat us? I mean, after last time, I'm pretty sure that Vigoroth can destroy your Zangoose. Just come with me, and I'll leave your friends alone."

I laughed loudly, surprising him. "I don't think so, Stephen. You can do whatever you want to me and Zangoose, but I'll never go with you. I'm with Joe now. I'll never go with you, not even if you held a gun to my head. Zangoose, quick attack!"

"Vigoroth, slash!"

Vigoroth swung its wickedly curved claw upwards, but swung too early, and opened himself up to Zangoose' attack. He staggered back a little ways, but regained his footing. The two ran at each other, claws raised in the air. One would swing, and the other would defend.

This went on for a minute, maybe two, until Zangoose finally landed a strike, just below Vigoroth's neckline. This opened him up for more hits. Chest, stomach, arms, all hit with backhands and slashes from Zangoose. Vigoroth's fur started to turn a reddish color as blood flowed out from the various lacerations. A final head butt sent Vigoroth rolling along the ground. When he came to a stop, he tried to get up, but was only able to get to a kneeling position, patches of fur torn and matted with blood.

"Zangoose, crush claw!"

Zangoose ran in for a final attack. He was just about to strike.

"Vigoroth, counter!"

As Zangoose was about to bring down his claw, Vigoroth struck upwards, sticking his razor-sharp claws into Zangoose' belly, stopping him in his tracks. Zangoose fell to the side, paws holding the wound, trying to quell the flow of blood that started to seep through.

"Zangoose, no!"

I started to run to Zangoose, but Vigoroth struck me out of the way. I rolled on the ground, and when I came to a stop I felt where I'd been hit. It was warm and wet. I looked down, and saw the thick, red blood on me. I felt around, but I wasn't cut. It was Zangoose' blood.

Stephen started laughing maniacally. "What did I tell you, Alice? I've got you, and there's nothing you can do about it! Now your friends have to pay for it, starting with her!"

I looked up and over to the right. It was Alex, the girl with green and purple hair. I tried to call out her name to warn her, but all I could get out was "Ahh…" It hurt too much to say anything.

Zangoose rushed for her, right paw pointing downwards, and glowing a hot white. Alex turned around at the last second, and he caught her off guard. She was hit upwards with mega punch, and she went flying into the grass. I didn't see where she stopped, because next Vigoroth hit Manectric, and sent him into another area. Vigoroth roared in victory.

Stephen erupted in laughter. "Do you see, Alice! Do you see what I had to do because of you? This could've all been avoided if you'd come with me before, but you just HAD to be so stubborn, didn't you? Vigoroth, hit her with mega punch!"

Vigoroth started rushing towards me. I knew that was it. Steph was still busy fighting that kid with the bug pokemon, and Joe still wasn't back. I decided to say the last thing I could think, even if he wasn't here. "Joe, I love you, please help me."

_Joe_

I couldn't find Umbreon anywhere. I was frantic, I couldn't lose her, I needed her. I looked everywhere, calling out her name.

"Umbreon! Umbreon, where are you! Umbreon!"

I took out Scizor's poke ball, and brought him out.

"Sci-zor!"

"Come on Scizor, we need to find Umbreon, I need you to help me!"

He nodded, and we split up to look.

After a couple minutes, I heard him call out loudly, and I ran towards his voice. What I found surprised me.

There were four guys, all about a year or two older than me. Three of them were built like me, thin and slightly muscular. The two on her right had black hair, but one had glasses. The other thin guy had blonde hair. The fourth guy was big. Not big as in fat, but big as in buff, beefy. The four of them were kneeling around Umbreon, but looking up at Scizor, scared.

"Who are you! Leave her alone!"

They looked at me, and the buff guy said "Whoa, calm down, dude, we're trying to help her! She's yours?"

"Yeah, she's mine. My friends and I got attacked by these guys who've been following us. They're still back at our camp fighting them. One of them has a Vigoroth, and it knocked my Umbreon all the way out here."

The guy with blonde hair picked her up and handed her to me. I held her tightly in my arms. "Are you okay, Umbreon?"

"Bree…" her cry was weak. She was hurt badly.

"Dude," he said, "That must be one tough bastard to knock her all the way out here. Do you need our help?"

Out of nowhere, I heard an overly-loud laugh. It was definitely Stephen. "Yeah, I think I might. Come on, lets go!"

We ran back towards the camp, with the beefy guy holding Umbreon for me while I ran. Scizor flew right by me, claws dragging backwards to reduce air resistance. The thin guys all took out a poke ball. When we got back to our campsite, Stephen was standing off at the far side of our little clearing, and Alice was on the ground twenty feet away, looking at him in fear. Zangoose was near where we were, with blood oozing from a deep cut in its belly.

I looked to the guy with glasses. "Take care of him, try to stop the bleeding." He nodded, and knelt down.

Suddenly, Vigoroth, who was standing by Stephen, charged at Alice. I wasn't about to let him hurt her anymore than she'd already been hurt.

"Scizor, metal claw!"

Just mere seconds before Alice would've been hit, Scizor clobbered Vigoroth's head with his right claw, knocking him to the ground, sending him rolling.

Alice, with a look of complete incredulity on her face, looked over at me. I ran over to her, and knelt down at her side. There was blood on her stomach, but I couldn't seen a cut anywhere. It must've been Zangoose' blood.

"Joe.." she whispered, then grabbed at her stomach.

"Don't talk," I said. "I need you to go with these guys. They'll help you, okay?"

She nodded. "Wait, Alex. Over there.." she pointed to a spot just a few feet away. Alex was laying on the ground, writhing in pain. Just next to her was Manectric. I looked down at her and nodded. Then I looked over at the guys.

"Hey, guys!" I shouted. They looked at me. "Take my friends and their pokemon to Mauville. Get them to the hospital, they're badly hurt, especially the Zangoose. Okay?"

They nodded. The beefy guy picked up Zangoose on his back. The blondie and the guy with glasses got Alex, Manectric, and Alice. Steph came out from the grass on the other side.

"Joe, whats going on!" she looked around and saw the carnage. "Oh my god! What happened!"

"Steph, go with these guys! You need to get to Mauville, and get help, got it? GO!"

She nodded, and joined them. Alice was on the blondie's back. "Take care of her," I said.

"Don't worry," he replied. "She's in good hands, I'll get her to the hospital."

"Alice," I said to her. "You'll be safe with them, okay?"

"But what about you?" she asked.

"I'm going to finish this."

As they left, Vigoroth got to his feet. Scizor touched down to the ground, straightening his right leg back, and bending his left leg forward, ready for battle.

"Sci-ZOR!"


	14. The Hospital

I'm awake. I don't know… what? I hear people talking, they're talking about me, but about what? I remember Umbreon was hurt, and those four guys, and Alice on the ground, but what happened after that? I opened my eyes, and I'm in a room, with people around me. Its small, and I'm on a bed, with some beeping going on next to me. I looked around, and I realized I'm in a hospital bed. But why? I tried to sit up, but this intense pain shoots up my side, and I threw myself back down, but that hurt just as much.

"Don't try to get up," the nurse next to me says. "You're badly injured, stay down and relax. You'll be okay."

I didn't know what was going on. "What happened? Why am I in here?"

The nurse sighed, and looked at me. "You were in a fight, a bad one. A couple of your friends found you, and brought you back here."

I remembered it, fighting Stephen in the clearing, but I don't remember how it went. "When was that, nurse?"

"About two days ago. You've been asleep, we were afraid you wouldn't wake up. Your friends are outside, would you like me to call them in? They've been worried sick about you, especially the little redhead girl."

Alice! "Yeah, send them in." I tried to shift my weight on the bed, but it hurt too much.

The nurse went to the door and stepped outside. I looked at the window, and it was getting dark. Almost nighttime. A few seconds later, Alice, Steph, and Alex came into the room. Alice came up to me first, sitting right next to me. I looked into her eyes, and I could tell she'd been crying.

"Hey." I said.

"Hi," she said back, with a small laugh. She started crying. I put my hand on her cheek, and wiped the tears away with my finger. She put her hand over mine, and closed her eyes.

"I knew you'd wake up," she said quietly. "You've been out for two days. The doctors said you might not, but we didn't think the same."

I smiled back at her. "Well, I'm up, aren't I? Proved them wrong. But I don't know, what happened to me?"

Alice looked down, and Alex and Steph walked over to me. "We don't know," Alex said, as she put her hand over my free one. Alice saw this, and frowned.

Steph spoke next. "Those guys that brought us back went back to find you a little bit after, and they found you and Scizor knocked out on the ground. They brought you guys here."

I laid my head back into the pillow and looked up at the ceiling. "So did I lose? Did Stephen get away?"

"That's what it looks like." replied Alice. "He was nowhere around there, and they said that the grass was bent like a bike trail, so those guys must have gone back."

The nurse came back in. "Excuse me," she said aloud. "Visiting hours are over. Come back tomorrow."

I nodded. I said goodbye to Alex and Steph, who stepped out first. Alice stayed behind.

"Get better," she said with a smile.

"I will. Stay out of trouble."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

I looked into her eyes. "It means don't give Alex a hard time. I saw how you looked at her earlier. She's just worried about me, same as you and Steph. Don't think anything of it."

She sighed. "Fine, I trust you. But one wrong move from her, and-"

"And nothing. Alice, promise me you won't do anything crazy, okay?"

She sat back and folded her arms, looking around the room. "Ugh, fine. Just because you asked nicely."

I smiled at her. "Good. Now, come here, there's something I want to give you before you leave."

She leaned in, and I kissed her. When she stepped out, I laid back and tried to go to sleep, but I couldn't. I shifted my weight, but it caused another shot of pain up my side. That reminded me of something…

_Two days earlier…_

"Lets finish this," I said. Stephen stood there, awe-struck. He wasn't expecting me to jump in. Alice was out of the way and safe, that was all I cared about.

He laughed maniacally, then said "Finish what, Joe? None of this would've happened if you hadn't come to Littleroot town! You started this, Joe!"

"I started this! You started this by screwing around on Alice. You shouldn't have cheated in the first place. Now I'm going to get rid of you for good."

Scizor took up his fighting position. Vigoroth was on the opposite side of the field. His fur was matted up with dirt and blood. He was in no condition to fight. I didn't want to hurt another pokemon, but I knew Stephen wouldn't leave unless I forced him out.

"Scizor, metal claw!"

"Vigoroth, mega punch!"

Scizor flew towards Vigoroth, while Vigoroth charged Scizor. The two attacks struck, and both pokemon fell to the ground. Scizor got back up quickly, while Vigoroth took a little bit longer. They both charged back at each other, swinging claws and fists at each other in rapid succession, breaking off after a couple minutes. Vigoroth dropped to one knee, breathing heavily. Scizor held its position a foot off the ground, ten feet away.

"Scizor, take down!"

Scizor sped at Vigoroth. He tried to get up, but wasn't fast enough. Scizor struck with all the force built up from the speed, knocking Vigoroth flat on the ground. He tried to get back to his feet, but couldn't. Scizor hovered above, right claw raised in the air.

"Metal claw, go!"

Scizor began to swing the claw in a wide arc. Just a second before it struck, he was hit in the back by a Swellow. He fell to the ground, and when he tried to get back up, the Swellow came back for a second hit, putting him right back down.

I looked around, trying to see where the hit came from. Behind me, I saw Robert, but before I could get a word out, two Ninjask hit me from behind. The took both of my legs out from under me, knocking me to the ground.

I reached for my other poke balls, but somebody kicked them out of my hands. It was Robert. I saw the swellow, but I didn't see Frank anywhere. I tried to get back up, but Stephen came back and kicked me in the face.

"Thought you had it that easy, didn't you?" he shouted as he stood over me. I tried to push myself away, but Robert came behind me and forced both of my arms behind me.

"No way, kid." Robert said, while laughing. "Where's your friends when you need them? Not so tough now, eh?"

I spat out a gob of blood. "Let me go and I'll beat the crap out of you!"

"Not likely," Stephen said. "Now we're going to have a little bit of fun here. Settle in, Joe."

He grabbed me by the collar of my shirt. He was about to punch me, but I heard Frank's voice.

"Stephen, don't!"

He looked up. "Frank, stay out of this. If you don't want to be involved, then get the hell back to the hideout!."

I looked over at Frank, who was standing a few feet away. "No, Stephen, its wrong! We came to get Alice, right? Well, she got away, lets regroup and come back later! This isn't necessary, Stephen!"

Stephen got off of me and walked over to Frank. He pushed him down, and stood over him. "Frank, I don't want to hurt you. You've helped me out a lot, and I thank you for that. But don't you dare get in my way, or I'll bring this to you. Understand?"

Frank nodded his head and got to his feet. "What do you want me to do then, cause I'm not doing this."

"You don't have to," he answered. "Grab his poke balls and get them to the hideout. We can make a killing from selling them. Go, you don't have to see this."

Frank picked up my poke balls, got on his bike, and took off. I tried to get up and go after him, but Stephen punched me in the face, and I went back down.

"Oh no, you're not getting away. I've waited too long for this."

With that, he lifted his fist again. I woke up.

_Present day…_

In the morning, I lied there in the bed, thinking about what I remembered last night. Stephen and Robert beat the hell out of me. Frank didn't. Why? Why was he the only one who didn't want to do anything? And where did he take my pokemon? My thoughts were interrupted by the nurse. She came in with breakfast. It wasn't good, but it was edible. Later, Alice came in to visit.

"Hey," she said quietly. "How are you feeling today?"

I sat up. The pain came back, but it wasn't as intense as yesterday. "I'm good. I think I remember what happened. You know, back at the camp."

She sat down next to me, surprise on her face. "Yeah? What happened?"

"They came back. They jumped me, Robert and Stephen. They took Houndoom, Scizor and Kirlia."

She shook her head. "No, they didn't get Scizor. He's at the pokemon center, recovering with Umbreon."

I laughed. "Good. I'm going to need them. Once I'm out of here, I can go after them. I need to get my pokemon back."

I tried to get up, but it hurt too much. Alice stood up and helped me back down. "Joe, take it easy. You're still hurt pretty bad." She started smiling. "I'll tell you what. I know something that'll help with the pain."

She gave this devilish little grin. "Oh yeah," I asked. "Whats that?"

She leaned in, and started kissing me. Slowly at first, but then with more and more force. I put my right arm around her shoulder and pulled her in closer.

"You're right," I said between kisses. "This is taking my mind off of it."

She smiled. "See, I told you."

We started again, but the door flew open. We looked up, and it was Alex. She looked over at us and smiled, but then she saw what we were doing, and put on a regretful expression. "Umm, I hope I'm not interrupting anything, but there's something I need to talk to you about. Should I come back later?"

Alice started. "Yeah, you probably-"

"No, its cool," I said. "Come on in."

Alice looked at me incredulously. I looked back at her, and whispered "It won't take that long, don't worry."

She sighed, and sat back, arms folded, glaring at Alex.

I looked up at Alex, and started. "What is it?"

She nodded. "Well, you have another visitor. I wanted to tell you first, so that you didn't freak out when he came in."

I thought about who it could be, then after drawing a blank, I said "Let him in."

"Okay. Come on in, Frank."

Both Alice and myself were in shock as Frank, the thin, black-haired kid from Stephen's gang. I wanted to get up and charge him, but I didn't want to risk the pain. Besides, the black eye and busted lip made it seem like he already got his beating for the day.

"What the hell do you want!"

He walked in closer, to the foot of the bed. "Joe, I just want to say I'm sorry for what happened the other day. And I'm sorry I messed with you guys those times. Lets just say Stephen has a convincing air about him."

Alice laughed. "Yeah, I know that from experience."

Frank looked from her to me. "Anyways, Joe, you know we, I mean, I took you pokemon back to our hideout. It was wrong. I confronted then about it yesterday, and Robert did me one up for it." He pointed to the dark bruise around his eye, then at the cut on his lower lip.

"What do you want, Frank?" I asked.

He sighed, looked at the floor, then looked back up to me. "I want to help you get them back. I got away from them, and I want to help you. Starting with getting you your pokemon back."

I looked at Alice, who was shocked. "Joe, we can't trust him! Look what he did to you!"

I shook my head. "He didn't do anything. I remember, he wanted to stop them. I think I can trust him."

Alice opened her mouth to speak, but I stopped her. "Alice, its okay. Please trust me on this."

She sat back and calmed down.

"Okay Frank, how are we going to get them back?"

He smiled. "I can take you to their hideout. Its just west of here, on the way to Verdanturf town. The sooner we go, the better our chances of them still being there. Are you in Joe?"

I took a second to think about it. I definitely wanted to get my pokemon back. The only thing keeping me from complete agreement was Alice. I didn't want to upset her, but I had to do it.

"I'm in. Steph, talk to the nurse to see if they'll let me get out, okay?"

"Sure thing, Joe." She left the room.

I looked over at Alice. There was a tear coming down her cheek.

"Hey, guys," I said to Alex and Frank. "Could you give us a moment?"

They nodded, and left the room. I looked back at Alice, who was wiping away her tears.

"Alice, whats wrong?"

She sniffled, and said "Nothing, I just don't think you should go right now. You're still injured, Joe! I don't want you to get hurt any worse than you are."

"Alice, don't worry about me getting hurt. I need to get my pokemon back from them. They're going to sell them if I don't, and I can't let that happen!"

"I love you, Joe."

We sat there in silence. Did she really just say she loves me? "Alice, I-"

"You don't have to say it back. I know if you did now, it would only be because I said it, but I said it because I mean it. I do love you."

She got up and stepped outside. A couple seconds later, Steph walked in. "Joe, the nurse said you can be released tomorrow if you want to. She said the doctor can write up a prescription for some pain meds, and you should be fine on your own. Is that okay with you?"

I nodded. "Yeah, its good." She got up to go outside, but I stopped her. "Steph, one more thing."

"What is it?"

"Keep an eye on Alice and Alex. I don't think you saw it earlier, but when Alex came in, she kind of interrupted me and Alice. That really pissed her off, I think, and I don't want her doing anything she's going to regret. Can you keep them civil for me, please?"

She nodded. "I'll try my best, but when a girlfriend gets jealous, stuff can get ugly, whether or not you try to stop it." She stepped outside.

_The next day…_

I'd just been released from the hospital. After taking the pain meds, I was feeling great, and ready to find those jerks that took my precious pokemon from me. I picked up Scizor and Umbreon from the pokemon center next door, and went to the hotel where the girls were staying. When I walked in, they were shocked to see me up.

"Joe!" shouted Alice and Alex. Both jumped up and ran over to hug me at the same time. When they jumped on me, I felt a quick sliver of pain, and had to tell them to let go for a second.

"Sorry Joe," said Alex. "Its just so exiting that you're up and walking again!"

"Yeah, it feels great!" I replied. "I can't wait to get out there to find those jerks and get Houndoom and Kirlia back, you know?"

With that, Alice gave me an extra-tight hug, and didn't let go. Soon, though, Frank came out of the restroom. When he did, Alice let go of me, and sat down on the couch nearby.

"Good to see you up," he said. "Ready to get out there?"

I nodded. "I'm ready, lets do this." I looked over at Alice. "Are you coming?"

She looked down at the ground. "No, I don't think I can. I don't want to see what you might have to do to get them back. Stephen is stubborn, so he's not just going to give them up. You do know that, right?"

"Yeah, I guess I do. Steph, you coming?"

Steph shook her head. "No, I'm going to stay here and keep Alice company. I don't want her to feel alone."

And with that, Alex, Frank, and myself set off down Route 117 to Stephen's hideout.


	15. The Secret Base

Frank went off to get us some water from a nearby stream. From what he told us, we were almost to Stephen's hideout. Even though he was helping us, I didn't completely trust him, so I kept my eye on him while he filled up our water bottles. We'd been out here walking for a few hours, so we decided to take a break. Umbreon and Scizor were eating some berries hanging from a bush a few feet away, and Alex was laying on her back, looking at the sky. I moved over and sat next to her.

"So whats up with you and Frank?" I asked. "Why did you bring him in? I mean, he did attack us, and he did steal my pokemon, so why did you trust him?"

She turned her head to the side so she could look at me, her shoulder-length hair splayed out around her head. "Frank and I used to be together." She held up her charm bracelet. "He gave me this as our three month anniversary gift. I gave him two of the little things I had on it, so that he'd always have a part of me with him. He told me that as long as he had them, I could trust him, because he would love me for it. He still has them."

I raised an eyebrow. "How can you tell? I haven't seen them anywhere on him?"

Frank came back, three full water bottles in hand. "You guys ready to go? Its not far, we're almost there."

I took a closer look at him. Around his neck was a thin chain, and on the chain were two small, silver objects. No doubt the missing ones from Alex's bracelet. "Yeah," I said. "We're ready. Umbreon, lets go. Scizor, come on back." I put Scizor back into his ball and Umbreon walked beside us.

For at least 2 more hours, we walked, silence between the three of us, Frank in the lead, with Alex, Umbreon, and myself behind him. Umbreon would occasionally wander off a little, chasing a Butterfree, or Beautifly here and there. I'd call her back, though, and we'd keep on going.

Finally, he lifted up his right hand, signaling us to stop. "We're here." He said. He turned to the bushes a few feet away from us. "Get behind those bushes. I'm gonna go check things out."

We ducked behind the bushes, and Frank walked towards a very tall, very thick tree. He poked around the bushes by it for a couple seconds, then looked up the tree. After a couple minutes, he ran back to where we were hiding. He sat next to us, and started whispering. "They're not there right now. We'll wait."

"What!" I shouted. "Why are we gonna wait! Why not just go in and grab them while nobody's home!"

"Shh, quiet!" he whispered loudly. "Just because they're not in doesn't mean that they're not around. I remember we had to look around the forest a few times for berries and stuff. If we're lucky, then they're in Verdanturf right now and didn't hear you. We're gonna have to wait for them. Can you handle that?"

I nodded angrily. Umbreon looked up at me with a confused look on her face. "Don't worry, girl," I said. "We'll get 'em back in a little bit. Take a little rest, I'm sure you're still tired."

"Brehh-on!" she purred, and curled up under the bush.

"So, Frank," I asked. "What made you want to join Stephen in the first place? You don't really seem like the 'get revenge on my ex-girlfriend' type, you know?"

Frank laughed lightly at this. "I pretty much joined him because of Robert. He's been my best friend since we were little kids. I would help him out with his homework and stuff like that, and in return he fought off bigger kids and bullies. I'd never met anyone tougher than Robert. After awhile, all the bullies in town knew to stay away from us. At least, that's how it started. After awhile, he taught me how to fight on my own, and after we got our pokemon, we were so close, we kind of felt like brothers."

"Oh," I said.

Alex, who'd been frowning in confusion, asked "Yeah, but how did you meet him? I don't remember you knowing anyone named Stephen when we were together."

He looked down at the ground, then over at me. "Well, Robert and I met him that day you guys butt-whooped us back in Oldale town. Robert and I went to the corner store by our house later that day. We saw Stephen back by the drink aisle, he was pissed off about something. He was kind of blocking the way to the energy drinks, so I asked him to move."

_Frank_

_20 days earlier…_

"Hey, dude, can you move? You're in the way."

I didn't mean to piss him off, or anything, but the guy was already livid about something, so I tried to ask him in the nicest way possible. Unfortunately, it wasn't polite enough.

"You know what, no, I won't move. YOU move, you're in my way!" He took a step forward, and pushed me backwards into Robert. Robert moved me off to the side, and stepped forward towards this guy.

"Hey, jerk," he said, pointing a finger at him. "Watch what you do around here. You mess with Frank, you mess with me. And you don't want to-"

The guy cut him off mid-sentence. He grabbed Robert by his outstretched arm and swung him into the drink coolers. Robert fell to the floor.

The store owner, probably afraid he would have to repair something, came to where we were. "Hey, whats going on back here?"

"Nothing," the guy said. He was just a year or two older than us, but he was our height. Hell, he could've passed for part of our gang. "My friend here just tripped and fell. That right?"

Robert was pissed off, but he didn't want to start any trouble in here. He'd known the store owner most of his life, and he didn't want to cause him any trouble. "Yeah, that's right. Untied shoelace, that's all."

The owner nodded. "Well, be more careful next time, kids." He walked back to the counter.

Robert got up to his feet, and glared at this guy. "Alright, you want to start something, lets take it outside."

He smiled. "Listen, man, I'm not here to start any trouble with you. I'm after someone, some people, actually. Have you guys seen a group of four kids about your age? Two guys, and two girls?"

Robert looked over at me, and we both nodded and looked back at him. "Yeah, we have," I replied. "They came through here today, but we only saw two, one guy and a girl with red hair. They beat our pokemon earlier. Why are you after them?"

"Tell you guys what," he said, grabbing a soda out of the cooler. "I'll pay for your guys' drinks, but you've got to do something for me."

"Whats that?" I asked.

"My name's Stephen. Hear me out. I'm after them to get her back. She's my girlfriend, and that guy took her from me. I like your attitudes, both of you guys. How 'bout you come with me, and help me out? You can get a bit of revenge, and I'll get my girl back."

I looked at Robert, who seemed to be seriously considering this. I turned back to this guy, Stephen, he said his name was. "Give us a second to talk about this, okay?"

He nodded. Robert and I backed away a few feet. I spoke first. "Robert, bro, do you really want to do this?"

Robert looked up at me. "Yeah, I do. I want to get some payback on those guys. Don't you?"

I shook my head. "Not really, no. They beat us, big deal. We'll train harder, and get better. Next time they come around we'll get 'em back. I don't want to go looking for trouble."

Robert put his hand on my shoulder. "Fine then, Frank. You don't have to go, but I'm going. See you around, bro."

He started walking back towards Stephen, but I stopped him. "Okay, I'll go. But promise me, if this gets out of hand, we're done. We're coming back home, got it?"

"Sure, sure, whatever." We walked back to Stephen. "Come on, lets get after them before they get too far ahead."

_Joe_

_Present day…_

"Damn," I said. "So you didn't really want to do it. You just joined because of Robert."

He nodded. "Yeah, that's pretty much is. I wanted to keep him out of trouble, but looks like he's in too far now."

Alex sat up and scooted over to sit next to him. "Well, at least you're on our side now. I'm so glad to see you, its been forever." She stood up. "Well, I'm going to find a berry bush so that Manectric can get a quick snack before we go in. Be right back." She walked off into the woods. I saw her open Manectric's ball and let him out, so that he walked next to her.

I looked down at Umbreon. She was resting on her side, legs outstretched. Slowly, her golden bands started glowing. Faintly at first, but then slowly getting brighter. I looked over at Frank. "So what made you change sides? It couldn't have been just how they treated me back at the campsite."

He smiled, then looked down the way Alex had gone walking. We could see her sitting next to a bush, with Manectric digging his nose into it. "Her," he said. "Seeing Alex again back at your guys' camp made me remember how much I'd missed her. She didn't want to attack me, but she had no choice. I couldn't back down, and neither could she. Still the Alex I remember, fighting for whats right. I love that girl, Joe."

I smiled. "Yeah, I see what you mean." I heard some movement behind us and turned around. Over by the huge tree, I saw two guys getting off of their bikes. It was Stephen and Robert. Robert let out one of his Ninjask.

"Ninjask, secret power," he shouted. Ninjask flew up into the tree. I saw a bright pink flash, and a vine dropped down. Stephen handed his backpack to Robert, who climbed up first. Stephen went around behind the tree and hid both bikes, then climbed up the vine. After he was up, it quickly slithered its way up, and out of view.

"Okay, we'll wait just a little longer," Frank said. "Until they go to sleep. Then we'll take the stealth approach, got it?"

I nodded. "Got 'ya. Hey Alex, come over here."

Alex came over to us, and we told her the plan. I would go in first. Frank and Alex would wait out here. When I got the pokemon and got out, we'd take their bikes, get to Verdanturf town, and alert the police that there were pokemon thieves. Once they got involved, there wouldn't be any trouble from them anymore.

It was almost midnight. There was a full moon, and it was high in the beautiful darkness of night. Umbreon's bands were glowing brightly, forcefully. The glow was so powerful, the light seemed to be pulsing in and out.

Frank took Swellow out from his poke ball and used secret power to bring down the vine.

"Okay Joe, here you go," he said to me. "The poke balls should be on top of the dresser. Good luck. If you're not out in ten minutes, or if we think something's wrong, I'm going in, okay?"

I nodded, put Umbreon in her ball, and started climbing the vine. It seemed to take forever, but after awhile I came to a ledge on the tree. Funny, from the ground, this part of the tree didn't look wide enough to hold something this big. I got off the vine and started quietly walking towards the door. It was unlocked, and once I was in, I crouch walked around the sides.

Inside, it was extremely dark. There was only faint light coming from a window, but I don't remember seeing a window from the outside. This secret power move must have some really crazy powers.

I looked around the inside of the hideout. From what I could see, it was a four-wall room, with two cots on the right side of the door, both occupied. Robert and Stephen were asleep. I kept searching for a dresser, and I saw it on the opposite side of the room. I started creeping towards is. About halfway, I took a step, and the floor under me emitted a bright white glow, and made a loud noise. Robert and Stephen started to stir in their sleep. I'd woken them up!

I started moving faster, but each step made another loud noise and bright light. I heard them get up from their beds.

"What the hell!" shouted Stephen.

"Its Joe!" shouted Robert.

They both brought out their pokemon, Ninjask and Vigoroth. I finally made it across to the dresser, and grabbed my poke balls. "I've got you!" I shouted. I turned around, and came face to face with Vigoroth.

"DIDN'T GET ENOUGH LAST TIME!" bellowed Stephen. "VIGOROTH, FINISH THIS LOSER!"

Vigoroth began to swing its giant claw, but I ducked out of the way just in time. I took out Umbreon's poke ball and called her out.

"Umbreon, take down!"

Umbreon, who's bands were glowing a violent golden color, screeched, and jumped, slamming into Vigoroth's stomach and sending him flying into the wall. He struck the wall so hard, it dented the wood.

Robert, seeing this power, shouted "Ninjask, fury cutter!"

Ninjask sped towards Umbreon, but missed its attack. Umbreon charged at Ninjask and hit him with quick attack. Ninjask went the same was as Vigoroth, slamming into his stomach, and effectively knocking them both unconscious. I put the poke balls onto my belt and bolted for the door, Umbreon right behind me.

I grabbed the vine in one hand and Umbreon in my other arm. Sliding down the vine, I looked up and heard Robert shout "Secret power!" It seemed like I was moving down faster, but that wasn't the case. The vine was moving up! When I got to the end of the vine, I started falling, falling fast. I shouted out, and suddenly I hit the ground. Except, it wasn't the ground. I looked up and saw a face covered in white fur, and a red scar across the left eye. Zangoose!

As he put me down and I got to my feet, I looked around, finally seeing Alice next to the bush we were hiding in earlier. I dashed over to her. "What are you doing here? I thought you didn't want to come?"

She smiled, and said "I couldn't let my boyfriend get hurt, now could I? Did you get them?"

She called me her boyfriend. I guess, that made her my girlfriend. I hadn't really thought about it before, but I guess we were official, then. Either way, we needed to get out of here. "How did you get here so fast?"

She pointed off to the right. In the moonlight, I saw Steph on a bike. It must've been Frank's, he'd left it outside our hotel. "Alright, come on guys, lets get going!"

Alex and Frank came out from behind the tree, each walking a bike. They got on one, and Alice and I got on the other. There was a small metal wire basket attached to the rear wheel on mine, and I put Umbreon in it. We were about to take off, when four white needles struck the handlebars. I jumped off, and turned in the direction of the tree. Robert and Stephen were already down, with the two Ninjask and Vigoroth ready to attack.

"Ninjask," shouted Robert, "slash, go!"

The Ninjask rocketed towards us, claws glowing a hot white, ready to strike. Umbreon jumped out of the basket.

"Umbreon, shadow ball!"

Umbreon screeched, then began charging a dark ball of energy. The Ninjask had almost closed the distance when she fired. There was a loud roar, and the ball shot and struck the two Ninjask, carrying them all the way back to the tree, which was a good thirty feet away. Upon impact, there was a massive explosion which rocked the hideout and all the trees around it, making them shake like mad. All of us, including Stephen and Robert, were in complete shock. I looked down at Umbreon. She was glaring right at Vigoroth.

"Umbreon, take down!"

Her bands pulsed a couple times, then stuck at a brilliant golden color. She cried out, then charged Vigoroth. He ran towards her, about to strike with those wicked-curved claw, but she struck to quick. Vigoroth was driven straight down into the ground, and he stayed down. The Ninjask were up, and one flew straight at Umbreon. Before I could get an order in, she hit with quick attack, knocking him back and into a bush. The second Ninjask came at her from behind this time. The second he struck, she emitted a spray of green gas from her bands. The Ninjask hit her, but he seemed to have also taken damage in the attack. His flying pattern was off, and he started drifting left and right. Had he been poisoned? When Ninjask turned around, it looked like it was about to pass out. Umbreon made that happen much quicker, striking with a quick attack and sending him into the same bush as the other Ninjask.

"Okay Umbreon, lets go!"

Umbreon jumped back into the basket, and the five of us sped off back towards Mauville city, Alice and myself in the middle, Frank and Alex on my right, and Steph on my left. We were pedaling at full speed, trying to get as much distance between us and them as possible.

After an hour of riding, we got back to Mauville and our hotel. We parked the bikes at the lockup and went to our room. Inside, we each found a place and dropped. Steph and Alice laid down on their beds, Alex took the couch, and Frank and I got the floor. We were awake for another hour afterwards.

"Joe," Steph said later, "what was that back there? I had no idea Umbreon had so much power!"

"Seriously," Alice chimed in. "I mean, that was amazing, and all, but that was kind of scary. Umbreon was seriously tough back there, Joe."

Umbreon, who'd been curled up on my stomach, looked up, purred, and put her head back down.

"I have no idea," I said. "I think it had something to do with the moon. I've seen her bands glow brightly before, but never pulse like they did. I think Umbreon gets more powerful when the moon is out, especially a full moon."

Frank chuckled. "Well, I'm just glad we never attacked you guys at night before. That would've been one hell of a game changer."

I laughed. "No matter what, I got my pokemon back." I sat up and took out Houndoom and Kirlia's poke balls, tossing them and calling them out. I also brought out Scizor.

Houndoom jumped and knocked me down, licking my face. It took me a lot of strength to get him off of me. Finally, he calmed down, and laid down on his belly and paws. Kirlia, the cute little thing she was, started playing with Umbreon. She floated around in circles, while Umbreon tried to catch her. After a couple minutes, Kirlia realized I was there, and came over to me. I hugged her, and she returned the embrace.

"I'm so glad to have you guys back. Tonight, you get to sleep out of your balls, I'm sure you're tired of being all cooped up in there."

I laid back, Houndoom on one side of me, Kirlia on the other, and Umbreon curled up on my stomach. In the morning, I would find the Mauville gym, and get my third badge. But now, we would rest. My pokemon deserve it.


	16. The Dynamo Badge part 1

When I woke up the next morning, Frank had just stepped in. I got up from the ground and sat against the wall. He had two plastic bags in his hands, each weighed down by what had to have been Styrofoam boxes. I could smell bacon and eggs coming from the bags. If he was trying to do what I thought he was, then he was off to a good start. I stood up slowly, trying not to wake up my pokemon.

"Whats this?" I asked.

Frank smiled, then put the bags down on the small table across from the beds where Alice, Steph, and Alex were still asleep. "Its breakfast. I thought I'd try to make up for, you know, attacking you guys."

I knew it. "Well, thanks, but you pretty much made it up to me when you helped me get Houndoom and Kirlia back. Thanks, by the way. I never would've found them without your help, man."

He sat down and opened one of the boxes. The smell that came out was intoxicating, delicious. "No problem, I was glad to help. Wake up the girls, lets eat. Don't you have a gym leader to challenge today?"

I nodded, and woke up the girls. While they were eating, I set out some food for my pokemon and woke them up. Houndoom, happy as he was to be back, knocked me over again and started licking my face. Kirlia wrapped her arms around my right arm in what seemed like a hug. Scizor, the tough one, stood with his back against the wall, looking down on us, but I knew he had to be glad to see them back.

"Okay, okay you guys," I said, "knock it off. You need to get some food in you. I know its quick, but we're gonna challenge the gym leader today! You need to eat, so you can be ready. I'm gonna take you guys to the pokemon center to heal up first, then we're gonna get that badge, right?"

They each looked up at me, and cried out in what sounded like cheers. I stood up and went to join the others at the table. Alex and Frank sat on one side of the table. Across from them was Alice, who I sat next to. Between her and Frank, though, was Steph, looking alone. I looked over to her.

"Steph, whats wrong?"

She shook her head. "What? Nothing, why?"

"Nothing, never mind." I turned to Alex. "So, whats the plan for today?"

She finished chewing her bacon, then looked up at me. "Well, we're gonna finish eating, then I guess go to the pokemon center, then do your gym battle. I guess after we're moving on to Lavaridge town. That's where theres the next gym."

I nodded. "Okay, but so then what about the gym leader here? Anyone know anything about him?"

Nobody said anything for awhile, then Frank spoke up. "I don't know who he is, but I do know that the Mauville gym specializes is electric-type pokemon. As long as you don't use any flying or water types, you should be good."

"Alright then," I said. "Man, I can't wait to do this!" We sat there for another half hour eating, then headed to the pokemon center.

Inside, there were a lot of people, and a lot of injured pokemon. More than I'd ever seen in a pokemon center. We waited for about an hour before getting to the front desk. The nurse put my poke balls onto a small tray, then pushed the tray into what looked like a small computer, except the front opened like a microwave. She pushed a couple buttons, and the screen started to glow.

While my pokemon were being healed, I asked "So nurse, whats with all the injured pokemon in here?"

She sighed. "Its our gym leader. Theres so many young kids lately trying to challenge him, but he's too powerful. Their pokemon aren't trained enough to keep up with him."

I smiled. "Well then, I guess I'm about to be the first in awhile to beat this guy. Anything you can tell me about him?"

She shook her head. "First, I would say not to even bother. I'm sorry, but I just don't want to see anymore pokemon get hurt. But if you must know, his name is Daniel. He has some really powerful electric pokemon. Especially watch out for his Pikachu."

There was a beep, and the healing box stopped glowing. The nurse opened up the door, and handed my poke balls back to me. "Well, you're pokemon are nice and healed up. Please, if you're going to challenge the leader, be careful, I'd hate to see you back in here with hurt pokemon." I nodded to her and left.

As the five of us made our way to the gym, I noticed Steph was still looking sad. I wanted to ask what was wrong, but not now. We were almost to the gym, and it would be a bad time. I figured I'd wait until afterwards.

The inside of the gym looked almost like the grassland outside of town, where we'd camped out. The grass wasn't as tall, of course, but it still resembled the area. The field was in the center, and on the right and left sides were huge bleachers. Two kids, maybe a couple years younger than me, were having a battle in the middle. Off to the left sat a teenager about my age. He had black hair and glasses. I could swear I'd seen him before, but I didn't know from where.

The battle looked like it was almost over. There was a little brunette girl, and a blonde boy. She used a Magnemite, and the boy used an Electrike.

"Magnemite," she cried, "take down, go!"

"Electrike, dodge and quick attack!" shouted the boy.

Magnemite hovered above the ground, then shot off at Electrike, who dodged the attack and rocketed back with one of his own. The Electrike missed, and Magnemite blasted it with electricity. Electrike took the blast, and fired back with a larger bolt. Magnemite was hit, and its body began crackling with electricity.

"Electrike, spark!"

Electrike began to emit electric sparks from its body, then attacked Magnemite with an electrically charged tackle. The magnemite flew back a few feet, hovered for a second, then gradually floated down to the ground.

"Oh no!" shouted the little girl.

The black-haired teen stood up, and exclaimed "Electrike wins." He walked over to the little boy, who was jumping in excitement over his victory. He knelt next to the boy, put a hand on his shoulder, and said "Great work, Vic. One day, maybe you'll be good enough to challenge me. Now take Electrike to the pokemon center and get him healed up." The little boy nodded, put Electrike into his ball, and dashed out of the gym, giddy with joy. Next, the teen walked over to the little girl, who was on her knees, crying, with magnemite in her arms.

"Danny," she said through sobs, "how come I can't win? Why is everyone better than me?"

He sat down cross-legged next to her. "Its not that they're better than you, Val. Its that you haven't trained enough. You just got magnemite a few weeks ago. Vic has been training for a year. All you need is a little bit more training, that's all."

She stopped crying, rubbed her eyes, and put magnemite back into his ball. Then she looked up at him. "Will you train me?"

He smiled, and said "Of course I will. Come in every other day around noon, and I'll help you train magnemite, okay?"

She wiped her eyes one more time, and smiled. "Yay! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She jumped up, and ran outside.

The teen looked over at us, stood up, and walked towards us. As he was walking, he smoothed back his hair. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Steph's eyes widen, and I could hear her take in a sharp breath.

"Hey," he said calmly. "Sorry, I didn't notice you guys until just now. My name's Daniel. I'm the gym leader here in Mauville. You guys here for a gym battle?"

I stepped forward. "I'm Joe. These are my friends, Alice, Alex, Frank, and Steph." As I said their names, I looked at each of them. When I got to Steph, I caught her looking away shyly, with a hand ruffling the back of her hair. "I'm here for a battle. Are you really as powerful as the nurse said you were?"

He laughed, and said "I know I shouldn't tell you this, but those battles couldn't really be called battles. They were inexperienced kids. Honestly, I felt bad about fighting them, but I had to accept a challenge."

"Well then, get ready for another challenge. Lets do this, Daniel!"

He sighed, then smiled. "Alright then, Joe. You want this badge, you're gonna have to earn it. You're a bit enthusiastic for my taste, so hopefully you can take what you're about to get. Three on three, my friend."

We moved to opposite sides of the grass field. He stood with one poke ball in his hand and two on his belt. Umbreon was next to me, but I wanted to save her for last. I grabbed Kirlia's ball. "Kirlia, lets go!"

Kirlia popped out onto the field, elegantly balanced on the tips of her feet. Daniel tossed his ball next.

"Jolteon, come on!"

Out of the ball came a pokemon that was about Umbreon's height. Instead of black, though, it was nearly pure yellow, with a white tuft of fur around its neck. The fur on its neck, the back of its head, and the sides seemed stuck together, formed into spikes. These spikes seemed to crackle with static electricity. "Jolt!" it cried.

"Whoa, what is that!" I said in shock.

Daniel laughed, and said "It's a Jolteon, one of Eevee's many evolutions. I see you've got an Umbreon. Umbreon is the result of evolving one at night. Jolteon, however, can only be evolved with a thunderstone."

"Wow," I said slowly. "That's cool. I didn't know you could do that. But I didn't come here for a lecture on pokemon, I came here for a badge, lets get this going!"

Daniel nodded, then said "That's true. Jolteon, lets go! Pin missile!"

"Kirlia, protect!"

Jolteon tipped its head forward, and began to fire bright white needles from its neck and back fur. Kirlia put up a light purple bubble around her, effectively breaking each of the needles. When Jolteon stopped, she put down the bubble.

"Impressive," said Daniel. "Nice move, but can you stop this? Jolteon, quick attack!"

Jolteon raised its head, crouched back, then rocketed towards Kirlia. She dodged just in time, Jolteon's attack missing by mere centimeters. He went back in for another attack, but Kirlia teleported away. When Jolteon regained its bearings and located Kirlia again, it went in for another attack. At the last second, Kirlia teleported away, causing Jolteon to become confused and disoriented.

"Kirlia, use magical leaf!"

Kirlia's body began to glow purple, and a dozen leaves materialized around her. She pointed her arms at Jolteon, and the leaves began to make their way towards him at an astounding speed.

"Jolteon!" shouted Daniel, "Use agility to dodge the leaves!"

Jolteon shook his head and turned around. He saw the first leaf coming, and dodged at the very last second, suddenly reappearing a few feet away. The leaf, however, stopped after missing, then changed its course and re-targeted Jolteon, as did the rest of the leaves. Each of them flew at him, but he quickly dodged again. Time after time, the leaves would get within inches of him, but Jolteon continued to dodge and evade. However, after moving so fast for so long, Jolteon began to tire. His reaction time became slower and slower, until finally he was left panting heavily. The lead leaf flew towards him. He blasted a bolt of lightning at the leaf, and it was vaporized. However, he couldn't fire thunderbolts quick enough for the rest, and was struck by the other eleven leaves. After the onslaught, Jolteon was left on his side, struggling to regain his footing.

"Kirlia, finish it with psybeam!"

"Jolteon, thunder!"

Jolteon, after an amazing effort, stood up on his feet, and began charging gigantic amounts of electricity and channeling it through his hairs. Kirlia raised her arms, and began to form a purple ball of energy before her forehead. At the same exact moment, Jolteon unleashed a massive blast of lightning, and Kirlia fired an incredibly focused beam of energy. The two attacks met in the center of the field, struggling to gain ground and strike the opponent. However, shortly after contact, the energy involved in the meeting was too much, and the connection exploded in an intense burst. Both pokemon were knocked back by the blast. Kirlia was able to stand her ground, but Jolteon, already injured, wasn't. He dropped down to his belly and rolled over to his side, defeated.

"Damn," Daniel said quietly. "Good job, Jolteon. You almost had them. Come on back, buddy." He took out another ball and tossed it. "Manectric, lets go! Hit Kirlia with shock wave!"

Daniel's Manectric charged up its fur, and launched a wave of electricity around the entire battlefield. Kirlia put up her bubble, and quelled the attack. But the expression on Daniel's face made it seem as if he'd expected this.

"Manectric, feint!"

Manectric quickly ran to one side of the field, then jumped sideways at Kirlia, who still had her bubble up. I knew it would fail, but what I saw shocked my eyes. Manectric's attack burst through the bubble! The second he made contact with the bubble, it popped, and he struck Kirlia, knocking her ten feet away. She rolled, but then stood back up, noticeable weakened.

"Kirlia!" I shouted. "You can do it! Magical leaf!"

Kirlia began to create leaves around her, but Manectric blasted her with a burst of lightning, knocking her back down and causing the leaves to dissolve. Kirlia got back up, but Manectric quickly tackled her, knocking her down. This time she wasn't strong enough to get to her feet. I took out her ball and called her back.

"You're Manectric is strong," I called out. "But he can't beat my Houndoom! Lets go!"

I brought out Houndoom next. He howled loudly, and took a half-crouched fighting stance. Manectric did the same, and released a tremendous roar. Houndoom, unfazed, let loose an earth-shattering roar of his own. Manectric's eyes widened, and his stance loosened up. Houndoom had bested him.

"Houndoom, use head butt!"

"Manectric, dodge!"

Houndoom charged Manectric. He tried to dodge, but the attack struck, and sent Manectric rolling along the ground. When he got to his feet, he unleashed a burst of electricity. It struck Houndoom before he could move, giving him a powerful shock. When the attack faded, Houndoom was left slightly shaking, with small ripples of electricity still coming off of his body. He shook it off, and unleashed another savage roar. Manectric began to charge at him, charging electricity through his fur, but Houndoom opened his mouth and shot a thick stream of flames, striking Manectric and engulfing his body in flames. When the attack subsided, Manectric was on his side, with scorch marks all over his body. However, after a couple of seconds, he was able to get back to his feet.

"Houndoom, head butt, finish it!"

"Manectric, thunder!"

Houndoom began to charge at Manectric, head lowered and horns bared forward, ready to strike. Manectric, however, stood his ground, and charged up his fur, finally releasing a powerful blast of electricity. Since Houndoom paid attention to nothing except the charge, the attack struck him right on the head and sent a shockwave through his entire body. The hit forced him to trip, and he began to tumble, finally coming to a stop just inches in front of Manectric. Ripples of electricity surged through his skin, each time causing him to shudder. He tried to stand, but the pain was too much. He fell to the ground in defeat.

My friends in the stands all gasped in shock. I looked over at them, and saw a look of total sadness on Alice's face.

"Houndoom, come back." I put him back into his poke ball. "Great job, Houndoom, you deserve a rest." I looked down at Umbreon. "Are you read to get in there, Umbreon?"

She'd been sitting down this whole time. She stood, howled, and trotted into the field. "Umbreon is next," I said.

Daniel nodded. "Alright then, lets go! Manectric, quick attack!"

"Umbreon, use agility to dodge, then hit faint attack!"

Manectric dashed at Umbreon, but she dodged the same way that Jolteon did earlier. When Manectric's back was turned, Umbreon began to charge at him. He turned around at the last second, but she vanished! While he looked around in confusion, she re-appeared behind him, at the same velocity, and struck him with amazing speed. Manectric went skidding along the ground, finally coming to a stop at Daniel's feet. He'd been beaten.

Daniel took out Manectric's ball and put him back into it. "Come on back, Manectric." He detached another ball from his belt. "Pikachu, finish this guy!"

Out of Daniel's third poke ball came a small, yellow, mouse-like pokemon. It stood up on its back legs, and held its short arms out at its sides.

"Pi-KA!" it cried out, as jolts of electricity emanated from the red spots on its cheeks.

"Pikachu, use volt tackle!"

Pikachu dropped to all fours, charged an enormous amount of electricity around its body, then began a mad dash towards Umbreon. She quickly dodged, but Pikachu did a hair-pin turn, and continued towards Umbreon, striking her before she could dodge again. On contact, a gigantic burst of electricity rose up from Pikachu, shocking Umbreon, and both the tackle and the electricity send her flying. She came back down, struck the ground, and got to her feet. Pikachu stood up, standing the same way he did when Daniel let him out of his ball. He was actually grinning.

"Umbreon, shadow ball, full blast!"

"Pikachu, hit her with another volt tackle!"

Umbreon began to charge up a ball of energy, while Pikachu began to focus the electricity within his body. At the same time Umbreon fired the ball, Pikachu began his dash towards her. The ball and Pikachu rushed at each other, closer and closer until finally the two made contact. However, Pikachu simply dashed through the attack, not even seeming to know it was there. Umbreon stood still in shock, her eyes wide open and mouth draped. Pikachu struck her at full force, with another blast of electricity coming from the tackle. Umbreon flew through the air, once again, this time towards me. I was able to catch her in my arms, but she'd picked up so much velocity that it knocked me down to the ground. We'd lost. I couldn't believe it.

As Daniel called Pikachu back to his ball, I sat there in shock with Umbreon in my arms. I stared down at her as I ran my hand along her side, saying "Don't worry, you're gonna be okay. You did wonderful, Umbreon."

My friends jumped down from the stands, and ran to my side. Alice was the first, and she dropped to my side, one arm around me, and one around Umbreon. "Oh, is she okay? Are you okay? I can't believe you guys lost, you did so amazing!"

Daniel walked over towards us, and stood in front of me. Alex jumped in between the two of us, a defensive look on her face. "Don't come any closer! You really hurt Umbreon!"

I put Umbreon into her poke ball and stood up. "Alex, its cool. He beat us fair and square." I held my hand out to him. "You were great, man. Thanks for the battle."

He shook my hand, and said "Yeah, you guys weren't so bad yourselves. I can't remember the last time anyone lasted all the way to my last pokemon. I'll tell you what, Joe. Once you get your pokemon healed up, I'll take you on a rematch. Maybe, say tomorrow?"

I looked at Alice, who nodded, then Alex, who looked angry but still nodded. Steph, on the other hand, didn't do anything. She just stood there, shyly looking at Daniel. What was up with that girl?

I turned back to Daniel. "Sounds great. I'll be here tomorrow."

Daniel smiled, then said "I can't wait. One thing though."

"What?" I said in confusion.

"One on one. Umbreon and Pikachu. I want to see how much power that Umbreon has in her. I've never met a single trainer who had a pokemon that could take a volt tackle and still get up afterwards. That takes strength there, Joe."

I nodded. "You're on. Tomorrow, we do this."

After exchanging farewells, the five of us went to the pokemon center, then dinner, then back to the hotel.

"Steph," I said, just before we all went to bed, "What was up with you today? How come you were acting so weird around Daniel?"

I heard her giggle, then say "I think he's kinda cute."

Great.


	17. The Dynamo Badge Part 2

I'd been on the outskirts of town training with Umbreon since 5:00 a.m. I think the only person who knew we were out here was Frank, since I'd accidentally woken him up on my way out. I supposed he'd tell Alice and the others when they got up, too. No matter. I needed to train Umbreon for her re-match with Daniel and his Pikachu.

"Okay Umbreon," I said, "duck and weave through the trees and bushes as fast as you can. I'm going to time you, okay?" She nodded. "Okay, go!"

Umbreon shot off like a rocket, jumping left and right, left and right. Up and over a bush here, around a tree there. She needed to train her speed. Pikachu were among the fastest pokemon in the world, and she would need to use everything she had if she wanted to win. When she got to the end of the small patch of trees we'd been working around, she stopped, and I checked the stopwatch on my cell phone.

"8.3 seconds. Not bad, Umbreon. Better than last time, actually. You're getting faster!"

She jumped up and cried out in joy, still panting and breathing heavily from the dashes. It was 8:00. We'd been practicing for 3 hours straight, and she was tired.

"You want to head back and rest?"

"Bree!"

I laughed. "Okay Umbreon, lets get back to the hotel. But first, the pokemon center. I want to make sure you're in top health before your battle later."

On our way to the hotel room from the pokemon center, I saw three people, a girl and two guys, standing outside of a mini-mart. The guys were wearing light blue pants, and blue jackets over black and white striped t-shirts so tight you could see the bulge of their chest muscles through it. The girl had the same pants, but instead of a black and white shirt, she had a jet-black tube top that came up a few inches above her belly-button, and a blue jacket over it. She had long, curly blonde hair, and wrapped around her forehead was a blue bandana with bones in the shape of an 'A'. I recognized her from the museum. Back there, though, I couldn't tell if she was on our side, or just after Magma. I didn't care too much, though, and I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, but I heard her say something about a fisherman, and a boat captain. "Whatever," I thought as Umbreon and I continued back to the room.

"Joe, what time is you're match with Daniel?" asked Alice, as we sat in the diner eating lunch. Frank decided to treat us. He was still trying to make up for messing with us, even though I protested and told him that he'd already done that.

I shook my head. "I'm not really sure. Daniel never set a specific time, so I guess I should just go down there anytime."

"Take it easy on him, Joe." said Steph, from my right.

Alex, who was sitting across from her, gasped in surprise. "What do you mean, 'take it easy on him?' He's the gym leader, Joe can't just hold back. He needs to win to get the badge. Do you not want him to win?"

Steph shook her head. "No, I never said that, but I just don't want his pokemon getting hurt, that's all."

Alice, who was on my left, laughed. "And what, you'd rather have Umbreon get hurt instead? Steph, you can try to hide it all you want, but we saw how you were looking at Daniel yesterday. Admit it, you like him."

"Hey, I never denied it, okay? I just didn't say it outright."

"Yeah, okay, whatever you say," I said, laughing lightly. I looked over to Frank and Alex. She was on his left side, and his arm was around her shoulders, left hand draped over her arm. I smiled, and said "So Alex, whats up with you two? You guys back together?"

She smiled, and looked up at Frank, who returned the gesture. "I guess we're back together. I mean, I hope we are."

Frank leaned down and kissed her gently on the cheek. I took another bite of my grilled cheese sandwich, and said "Well, I guess that means yes, haha. Congratulations, you guys."

Steph dug her fork into her salad disdainfully, and said "Well then, I guess this leaves me as the only single person in the group." She ate a little bit, then took a sip from her soda.

I put my arm around her. "Don't worry Steph. What about Daniel? Just two minutes ago, you were talking about me losing to him, and now you're all sad. Just talk to the guy."

She smiled, then looked down. "Right, like he'd ever go out with me. I mean, he's gorgeous, and I'm-"

She was interrupted when the door to the diner swung open, and crashed into the wall it was attached to. It was Daniel. He looked left and right, finally spotting us, and he quickly walked over to where we were sitting, coming to a stop at the edge of the table. He was visibly tired, as if he'd been running a lot.

"Joe, you're a hard guy to find," he said between breaths. "I went by your hotel room, and you guys weren't there, so I had to rush around town to find you guys." He stopped and tried to catch his breath.

"Why were you looking for us?" I asked. "Are you ready for our match already? I was just getting ready to head down to the gym."

He shook his head. "No, no, nothing like that. Our match is going to have to wait, there's bigger things going on right now."

"Like what?" I asked in surprise.

"Its Team Aqua," he said. "They've kidnapped Mr. Marley, and I need your help to get him back from them!"

Everyone except Frank gasped. He wasn't there at the museum, so he must've not known about Team Aqua and Magma. Alice spoke first. "Who's Mr. Marley? Why'd they kidnap him?"

"He's the best fisherman in all of Hoenn, and one of the best boat captains in the world. He lives here in town, but most of the time he's out at sea. Today, he just happened to be in town, and Aqua kidnapped him. I don't know why, but we need to get him back from them."

I nodded. "Where are they keeping him?"

"A small cabin just north of town. I went down there earlier to check it out, but its too heavily guarded for me to get in myself. I tried to think of someone else who could help me, and you're they only name that came to mind. Are you in, Joe?"

I looked at the others, who gave expressions of agreement. "Okay, I'm in. Everyone else is coming too, though. They're good trainers, and they've got amazing pokemon, too."

Frank nodded. "That's great, we can use all the help we can get. Come on, follow me." He looked at Steph, who caught his gaze and looked away quickly. After looking down at her meal, he added "You like the salad here too? Its one of the best salads in Hoenn. I should know, I'm a vegetarian."

Once he said this, she looked back at him and smiled, the sadness in her face completely disappearing. Ignoring this, we got up and followed Daniel out of the restaurant.

A few hours later, sometime before sunset, we were crouched hidden behind some bushes on a hill overlooking the cabin where team Aqua was holding Mr. Marley. There were two entrances, one in the front and one in the back. At both were two guards each. I looked around the area, and saw two more out in the woods nearby. I turned to face the others.

"Okay, Alex and Frank, you guys go around the back. Take out those guards, and make sure that whoever's inside doesn't try to go out the back." I turned to where Alice and Steph were crouched. "You two do the same thing in the front. Nobody goes in, nobody goes out, understand?" They nodded. I turned to Daniel. "You and I will take out the guards in the woods. Once they're down, everyone else attacks. When all the guards are dealt with, I'll go in the front, and you'll go in the back."

Daniel nodded. "Okay, lets do this."

When we got down to the wooded area, I brought out Scizor, and Daniel got out Jolteon. We moved closer to the two guards, trying to not make any sound at all. When we were in hearing range of them, we attacked. Jolteon used take down on one guard, while Scizor hit the other in the head with a massive claw, knocking them both unconscious. Seeing our attacks, the others made theirs, successfully incapacitating the other guards. Daniel and I moved in.

When I entered the cabin, it looked roomier than I'd expected. It was completely empty, except for a chair and table on the far right side. In the chair was an older man with dark skin and long black hair. He'd been badly beaten. There was blood dripping from his nose, a gash on his bottom lip, and his left eye was swollen so bad it didn't look as if he could see anything. Standing next to him was a tall, burly man, wearing blue jeans, a blue bandanna, and a blue coat like the others. The only differences were his massive size and bare chest.

He stepped forward, and said "Well, well, well, look at you two. I'll bet you think you caught us off guard, don't you?"

Surprised, I said "What do you mean?"

He laughed deeply, and picked up a walkie-talkie from the table. "Okay Haley, bring 'em out!"

From the outside, I could hear what sounded like a helicopter. Faintly at first, but it began to get closer and closer, louder and louder, until finally it sounded like it was just outside the cabin. I took a look out the window, and what I saw horrified me. In the front, a large helicopter had landed. Out of it poured at least ten Aqua members, among them the blonde girl from the museum. They each took out a powerful water pokemon, and stood in a line in front of Alice and Steph. Frank and Alex came around, but they were stopped in their tracks.

"Don't hurt them," I said to the giant of a man.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt your friends. I've got all I came for, kids, so just get out of my way, and I'll let 'ya go."

As he made his way out, Daniel threw himself in between the man and the door. "I can't let you leave," he said. "You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us. Citizens of Mauville stick together. I'm not letting you get out of here after what you've done to this man!"

The walkie-talkie started making crackling noises, followed by the voice of the blonde girl. "Andrew, whats taking so long? Hurry up and come out here already so we can get back to HQ!"

Andrew picked up the walkie, and replied "Yeah, yeah, I'm on my way, chill out." He turned to Daniel, picked him up by the collar, and tossed him across the room. "I ain't got time to be messin' around with kids like you. See 'ya around, losers!"

Andrew walked outside and got onto the chopper, along with the rest of the Aqua agents. When everyone was loaded in, the chopper took off. Daniel got up, dusted himself off, and untied Mr. Marley. The others came inside right after.

"Mr. Marley," said Daniel, "are you okay? Can you get up and walk?"

Mr. Marley stood up, and although he was cringing in pain, he was able to make it out of the door. "I've gotta say, m'boy," he said to Daniel, "thanks fer comin' out to help an old man like m' self."

Daniel laughed, and said "Don't worry about it, sir. What happened in here, why did they take you?"

Mr. Marley sighed, then said "Its b' cause of what 'appened while I was out at sea, when I was just a lit'le young-un. They were askin' me questions 'bout this pokemon I'd seen, but I was just a boy, 'ya see, don' remember much. That boy, Andrew, beat me pret' darn badly, but I reckon I'll be back at sea in a day, or so."

I was confused. "What pokemon, Mr. Marley?"

"T'was Kyogre, m'boy."

Daniel stopped in shock. "Kyogre? I thought Kyogre was just a legend?"

Mr. Marley shook his head. "Nope, saw 'im with m' own two eyes, I did! But like I said, I was jus' a lit'le boy, an' I don' really remember much about it."

We'd started walking back to town, when Mr. Marley asked if we could take a little rest, so we stopped for a few minutes. It was already dark out. The moon was still large in the sky, but it was fading a little bit. Daniel came over to where I was sitting, looking up at the sky.

"Joe," he said. "I think I still owe you a rematch. You want to get it going? Right here, right now? You win, and you get the Dynamo badge."

I smiled, grabbed Umbreon's poke ball, and said "You're on!"

We moved to a long, flat area of the path back to town, and took out positions. I tossed out Umbreon, and he tossed out Pikachu.

"Okay Joe, you ready!"

"Yeah, lets go! Umbreon, quick attack!"

Umbreon dashed at Pikachu, barely missing by an inch. Pikachu dodged the attack, and stopped ten feet away. He charged up electricity in his fur, and rocketed at Umbreon. She barely evaded the volt tackle, and Pikachu stopped with a skid, turning back to Umbreon.

"You're Umbreon's a lot faster than last time!" shouted Daniel. "But can she dodge lightning! Pikachu, thunderbolt!"

Pikachu stood up on its hind legs, and started charging massive amounts of electricity.

"Umbreon, shadow ball!"

Umbreon took a stance, and started charging up the dark ball of energy before her head. Her bands, which were already glowing, began to turn to a violent shade of bright gold, the same as the other night when she'd fought Vigoroth.

Finally, Umbreon and Pikachu unleashed their attacks. The bolt of lightning shot towards Umbreon, and the dark ball rocketed towards Pikachu. The two attacks made connected, and exploded in a huge plume of smoke.

"Umbreon, foresight!"

Umbreon stood back, and began to stare closely at the cloud of smoke, which was hovering and floating around the field. Pikachu suddenly dashed out from behind the plume, and Umbreon saw it coming. She jumped up and out of the way of Pikachu's volt tackle. Before Pikachu could turn around, Umbreon sped towards him, and struck with a quick attack, sending Pikachu flying into a tree near Daniel. Pikachu got up, shook it off, and took a fighting stance, sparks flying from its red cheeks.

"Nice try," shouted Daniel, "but its gonna take more than just one good hit to knock off Pikachu!"

From off to the side, I could hear cheers coming from the others. They were loud enough to be heard all the way back in Mauville, probably.

"Umbreon, pursuit!"

"Pikachu, bite!"

Pikachu jumped up and bit Umbreon on the leg. She yelped in pain, and spun around rapidly to throw him off. Pikachu finally let go, but he was flung into a rock. The damage from the slam made him take a couple more seconds to get back up. Umbreon was still trying to shake off the bite. By the time she did, however, Pikachu was right back at it with another thunderbolt. It hit her dead on, and left her body crackling with electricity. She tried to get up, but she couldn't move. Pikachu took advantage of the situation, and struck with a volt tackle, sending Umbreon flying into a tree.

On contact, she rolled down the trunk and came to a stop at the bottom. That was it, I thought we'd lost, but suddenly her bands started pulsing. Pikachu started charging another volt tackle to finish it. He dashed at her, but a second before he struck, she jumped out of the way. Disoriented, Pikachu turned right into a shadow ball attack.

Umbreon was standing in the moonlight, small sparkles coming off of her body. Her bands were glowing violently, and started to pulsate. She seemed re-invigorated, like she'd been healed completely. Pikachu dashed in with a quick attack, but Umbreon struck right back with a take down, and sent Pikachu flying straight into Daniel. He impacted with a thud, knocking Daniel flat on the ground. Pikachu tried to get up, but another shadow ball made sure he stayed down.

Daniel stood up and put Pikachu back into his ball. He walked over to me, and shook my hand. "Joe, I can't remember the last time anyone gave me a decent battle, let alone actually came out on top! I have to say, that's worth a badge. Here is the Dynamo badge, you've earned it."

Daniel handed me a small, yellow badge. I took it and put it into my badge case. Alice and Steph ran down to where we were standing. Alice, as usual, jumped and wrapped her arms around me. "Oh, Joe, you did it! Congratulations!"

Steph looked happy, but she also looked conflicted. I turned to Daniel, who was walking over to where Frank and Alex were sitting with Mr. Marley. I nudged Steph, and said "Go after him!" She nodded, and took off following him.

I stayed there with Alice. My arms were wrapped around her waist, and we started kissing heavily. After a minute, I felt something tugging at my pants leg. I looked down, and Umbreon was jumping up and down, biting and pulling at my pants.

"Okay, okay," I said, "lets go Umbreon, you did good tonight." I put Alice down and picked up Umbreon in my arms. The rest of the night was spent walking back towards town. We walked in silence, stopping every now and then when Mr. Marley needed to rest. By the time we were back in town, and in our room, it was three in the morning, and we were dead tired. Even Umbreon, who seemed to be surprisingly energetic all night.

Alice, Alex, and Frank were asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow. Steph and I were the only ones awake. She came to sit next to me on the ground. Umbreon moved aside and jumped up onto my stomach, curling into a small circle and lightly snoring. Steph smiled, and reached over to pet her.

"Joe, you guys were great out there," she said. "I know I shouldn't have been wanting Daniel to win, but-"

"Its okay," I interrupted, "I understand. If you and Alice were to be in the same position, I would've secretly been wanting her to win."

She laughed quietly. "Well, at least I got something good out of today."

I sat up quickly and leaned forward. "What? What happened?"

She smiled. "Daniel gave me his number, and I gave him mine. He told me he was going to call me tomorrow."

I started laughing, a bit louder than I probably should have. Alex grumbled, and said "Hey, we're trying to sleep here! Can you keep it down!"

"Yeah, sure, sorry." I said, turning back to Steph. "Anyways," I whispered, "really! That's great, Steph! Congratulations, I hope it works out with you two. But how are you gonna have a relationship when you're traveling with us?"

"Easy," she said, "long distance. We'll call each other every night, and I'll see him whenever I'm in Mauville."

I smiled. "Well, good luck. Come on Steph, lets get some sleep. We should be heading out in the morning."

"Aww," she moaned. "can't we stay one more day? So I can spend a little more time with him?"

"Sorry Steph, but we need to get going. Alex needs to get to Fallarbor town, and I need to get my badge from Lavaridge town. Besides, I have a feeling that Aqua and Magma are still up to no good, and we might be able to get more information about them if we keep on going."

She sighed heavily, then stood up. "Fine. I guess if we have to then, we'll go."

"Sorry Steph," I said, but I don't think she heard me.


	18. Carolina, Mark, and Poliwrath

Route 111 was quiet and peaceful this time of day. It was still early enough that the sun was just barely halfway above the mountains to the east. The area around us was just as varying as the rest of Hoenn. For one, when we started walking a few hours ago, it was like we were surrounded by trees on all sides. Now, there were only trees in clusters, spread out. Mostly, there were mountains on all sides, like we were in this small valley, with a sparkling lake off to the west.

Steph was walking ahead of the rest of the group. After we'd said goodbye to Daniel, and he kissed her on the cheek earlier, she'd been completely full of joy and excitement. She couldn't stop talking about him, even though we tried to show her subtly that we didn't really want to hear about it. Its not that we weren't happy for her, we just weren't in the mood to talk about it.

Why? Alice and I had a bit of an argument this morning when we woke. It wasn't even an argument, just more of a misunderstanding. I'd rolled across the floor in my sleep, and ended up next to Alex's side of the bed. Apparently, she's a wild sleeper, and sometime in the night she fell off and landed on me. I didn't feel it, so I just kept sleeping. When I woke up, I found Alex lying cross-bodied on me, and Alice standing a few feet away, glaring, with her feet spread apart and her hands on her hips.

When I realized what'd happened, I pushed Alex off me and went over to Alice. "Alice, its not what it looks like, we were sleeping!"

She closed her eyes and turned away. "Ugh, whatever Joe." She turned and walked away. As she left, I could hear her mutter "That's just what Stephen said when I caught him."

Alice was walking behind the group, next to Frank. I was between them and Steph walking with Alex. I told her what had happened, and she started laughing.

"Hah, sorry Joe, I didn't mean to get you in trouble. You know I'm a wild sleeper, though." She laughed at this. So did I.

"Yeah," I said after the laugh, "I know that. I still remember when I was little, and I was playing at your house that one day and you hit me, remember?"

She looked at me, confused. "No, what are you talking about?"

I shook my head and laughed. "That one day, when you, me, and your brother were on the couch, and you fell asleep and swung to the side. You hit me in the face and made my nose bleed!"

Alex burst out in laughter. "Oh yeah, I remember that! Your mom didn't let you come over for a week because she thought you two were fighting. Oh man, I'd forgotten about that."

Up ahead in the road, there was a sign pointing north. Steph got to it first and started reading. We finally caught up to her, and looked at it ourselves.

"Sandbreak Town, two miles," I read. "You guys want to make a stop?" I turned to the group, and they all nodded. Alice nodded, but then looked away.

"Oh, I love that town!" shouted Alex in delight. "They've got the best pokemon contest hall!"

I raised an eyebrow at her, puzzled. "Pokemon contest hall? Whats that?"

She laughed, then when she realized I wasn't joking, she looked at me and said "A pokemon contest is a thing where trainers display their pokemon's beauty and power. You use moves like in a regular battle, but you try to make them look beautiful as well as strong. There's four different ranks: normal, super, hyper, and master. Every six months, they hold whats called the Grand Festival in Lilycove city, and trainers who's pokemon have gotten to the master rank are invited to compete."

Steph's mouth opened in surprise, and her eyes widened. I'd seen that look before. I knew what she was about to ask before the words even came out of her mouth.

"Can anybody try it?"

Alex nodded. "Of course, anyone with pokemon can sign up for a contest. You just need to get a contest pass from any of the contest halls in Hoenn. I'm surprised you didn't know about them sooner, there was a hall in Slateport city. You could've gotten your pass and started coordinating there."

Steph laughed, and said "Oh well, better late than never. Lets get going to Sandbreak town, I want to try out these contests!"

"Haha," laughed Alex. "Okay, lets get going. You know, I might be able to help you out with coordinating your pokemon's moves. My Manectric has a hyper ranking, actually."

All the way to Sandbreak town, Alex and Steph talked about pokemon contests. Alice was still behind me, walking just ahead of Frank, but still trying to keep a distance from me.

Around noon, we crossed into the town. It was small, about the size of Littleroot town, maybe a bit smaller, and more rural. There were farms all around the place, with hundreds of Miltank, Tauros, and Rapidash. On the way in, we were passed up by a couple of young kids riding Ponyta, laughing like mad. The houses were small, one story places, and the ranches and farms all had huge plantation-style homes. While we made our way to the contest hall, people would walk by and say hi to Alex.

One person, a small girl, jumped up and gave her a hug. "Alex, Alex! Where have you been! We miss you!"

Alex put her down and started laughing. "Hey Kyra, its been awhile. I'm sorry I haven't been back to visit, I've been busy back home." She motioned towards us. "These are my friends, Joe, Alice, Frank, and Steph. We, well, I'm traveling back to Fallarbor town. Joe and the others are going across Hoenn to challenge the gym leaders, and fight in the Hoenn League."

Kyra jumped up, and clapped. She grabbed Alex's hand, and started tugging at her. "Alex, come on! Carolina's over here! My sister misses you, do you want to see her!"

"Sure thing, Kyra," she said. "Lets go, I haven't seen her in months!"

The five of us followed the little girl. She led us to a large ranch house. It was two stories high, and painted a brilliant white. Up the steps, there was a wide porch that wrapped all the way around the house. A few feet away from the front door was an old lady in a rocking chair. Kyra pulled Alex towards her, and said "Grandma, grandma, Alex is here!"

The old lady looked up from the book she was reading, and gave a wide smile. "Well," she said, "if it isn't little Alex! Where've you been, dear? And who are your friends?"

Alex made the introductions, and told the lady about our little journey, and for a minute they talked about what had been going on around town. In the middle of their conversation, Kyra grabbed Alex's hand, and started pulling again. "Alex, come on! Carolina is in the back, lets go!"

The old lady gave her a disapproving look. "Kyra, its rude to interrupt people, and its rude to pull people. Do you want to be sent to your room again?"

Kyra looked down, defeated. "No, ma'am. I'll be good."

The old lady smiled. "That's better, dear. Now, I think Carolina is around back with Togepi. Better go say hi, now."

We said goodbye to the old lady, and followed Kyra around the porch and to the back of the house. Behind it was a large, long fence, running out at least a couple hundred feet. Out to the sides of it were large, square pens with Ponyta and a few Grumpig, purple, pink, and black pig-like pokemon. There was a large, red barn house, and around the other side of it, there was a lot of noise being made.

When we got to the other side, there was a tall, thin girl, with long, dark, curly hair. She was wearing tight jeans, a white t-shirt, and a dark green jacket, despite the heat. Her pokemon, a small white thing poking its head, arms, and legs out of what looked like an egg, was dancing about, swinging its arms from left to right.

"Togepi," she shouted, "metronome!"

Togepi continued to dance, its arms started to glow a bright white color. Finally, a bright purple light flashed outwards, and covered it from head to toe, like a veil, sparkling and making small flashes at the same time.

We all applauded, and Carolina turned around. She must've not known we were there, because she jumped up in surprise. When she saw Alex, though, she ran over and picked her up in a tight hug.

"Alex!" she shouted. "Oh my god, I haven't seen you in forever! How are you!"

Alex, after finally being put down, said "I've been great, Carolina. I want you to meet my friends. Joe, Alice, Steph, and Frank. Joe's traveling to collect all eight gym badges and go to the Ever Grande city championship."

Carolina came up to me and shook my hand. "Nice to meet you, Joe. You know, my brother is out doing the same thing. He just recently challenged the Lavaridge town gym, and won."

I smiled in surprise. "That's so cool! Maybe someday I could meet him in Ever Grande tournament and challenge him."

She laughed. "Maybe. Or maybe you can challenge him right now. He's right behind you."

Surprised, I turned around and came face to face with a boy who looked just a year younger than me. He was barely an inch or two shorter, but his hair made him look taller. It was up in wild spikes that shot out everywhere. Jean shorts and a green long-sleeve shirt made up the rest of his attire. There were three poke balls on his belt. I could tell he was a serious trainer by the look in his eyes.

"Whats this I hear about a challenge?" he asked. "Nobody can beat me! I've won four gym battles straight without losing, I'm unstoppable!"

Carolina closed her eyes and shook her head. "Mark, don't even get me started. You may have won the gym battles, but you lost countless times against just regular kids. I think you and Joe should have a battle. Maybe see what you've really got."

Mark shut up real quick after Carolina spoke, but then he started talking again. "Okay, so maybe I did lose to a bunch of people, it doesn't count unless you lose to a gym leader, that's when you know you're good or not! You want to battle, Joe? Three on three."

I looked him dead in the eyes, and grabbed a poke ball from my belt. "Sure thing, Mark. Lets do this! Go, Scizor!"

I tossed Scizor's ball. He came out, fluttered his wings a little bit, then started hovering just above the ground.

"Hmm," pondered Mark. "A steel and bug type, eh? I know what to do here! Numel, come on out!"

Out of his first poke ball came a small camel-like pokemon. It was mostly yellow, with dark rings around its eyes. The top part of its hump was a light green color, and there was a hole at the very top. "Okay Numel, ember!"

"Scizor," I shouted, "dodge and close in for a slash!"

Numel opened its mouth and shot dozens of small, bright orange balls at Scizor. He ducked to the left, but Numel just changed its aim. He dipped to the right, moving closer and closer, but every time he moved, Numel was right on him with ember. Finally, just before Scizor could get into striking range, Numel hit him with a single ball of fire, forcing him to stop. Now immobilized, he took the rest of the blasts.

"Joe!" shouted Frank. "You need to watch out! Scizor is very weak against fire types, since its bug AND steel! Make sure he doesn't get hit anymore!"

I nodded, and turned back to the battle. "Scizor, use agility and circle around Numel, then use double team!"

Scizor started moving faster and faster, and closing the distance between him and Numel. When he was only a few feet out, he split into three, then five, then seven, eventually completely encircling Numel.

"Numel," shouted Mark, "use heat wave!"

Numel, who was at first frightened by the sudden appearance of multiple enemies, put on an expression of arrogance, and started to puff out small clouds of smoke from the hole in his hump. After a couple seconds, however, I could feel the area getting extremely hot, and Numel was the reason. The air around him was heating up significantly, turning a dull orange, then a bright red color. The heat was too much to bear for Scizor, and his copies soon shriveled and rejoined the original.

"Numel, now hit him with rollout!"

Numel jumped up into the air, and when he hit the ground he rolled up into a tight ball, rotating wildly. After kicking up a bit of dirt and sand, Numel shot off at Scizor, rolling and rolling, building up speed. I shouted for Scizor to dodge, but by the time he saw Numel coming it was too late. Numel struck him right in the abdomen, knocking him out cold. I put him back into his ball.

"Haha, yeah! Good job, Numel!" Mark looked from Numel to me. "Well Joe, what next? If the rest of your pokemon are as lame as that Scizor, this is gonna be an easy fight!"

I smiled, and grabbed my next ball. "Alright, lets go Houndoom!"

Houndoom came out of his ball, and gave a great roar. Numel's eyes widened significantly, and he began to cower in fear. Mark, too, was shocked by the sheer volume of Houndoom's roar.

"Come on, Joe!" shouted Alex and Alice at the same time. I looked over at them, and saw them both realize they'd said it at the same time. Alex just smiled, but Alice looked away and crossed her arms.

"Fight fire with fire, Joe!" shouted Frank, oblivious to what had just happened. Or maybe he just didn't care. I turned back to Houndoom.

"Alright Houndoom," I said, "get in close and use bite!"

"Numel, hit him with ember!"

As Houndoom dashed towards Numel, he started to launch small blast of fire. Houndoom absorbed them, and seemed to be empowered by it. Before Numel could move, Houndoom chomped down hard on one of his legs. When he let go, Numel hit him with a tackle, knocking him back a few feet.

"What, why didn't ember do anything to him!" shouted Mark.

I heard Frank talking from behind me. "Its Houndoom's flash fire ability. He doesn't take damage from fire type attacks, and it powers up his own fire moves. Joe, hit him with some fire attacks!"

I nodded, and called out "Houndoom, flamethrower, go!"

Houndoom howled, then while his mouth was still open, he started building up a large flame between his jaws, finally unleashing the attack. The flames were so hot that I could feel them from where I was standing. The plume of fire struck Numel, and blasted him back, right into Mark's chest. As he was unable to battle anymore, Mark put him back into his ball and took out another.

"Good move, Joe. But try beating this! Medicham, crush this guy!"

Out of his second poke ball came a pink, yellow, and grey pokemon. It had thick legs, and a very thin body and arms. The top of its head had a large, pink covering on it. "Medicham, brick break!"

"Houndoom, dodge and use bite!"

Medicham jumped up into the air and came down at Houndoom, barely missing a strike that wound up crushing the ground where it hit. Houndoom jumped at Medicham, but Medicham's fist began to glow a hot white, and it struck with an uppercut to the jaw, knocking Houndoom into the air and sending him flying ten feet back.

"Whoa!" I shouted. "What was that attack!"

Mark just smiled and said "That was focus punch. Try getting close to Medicham again, and you'll just end up getting beat down! Medicham, use mind reader!"

Medicham stood still and stared at Houndoom, never once averting his gaze. Houndoom stood up on his feet, and howled again.

"Houndoom, use head butt, go!"

Houndoom charged at Medicham horns first, head tucked down. He seemed to have shaken off the punch, and was starting to gain speed when-

"Medicham, use reversal!"

Just seconds before Houndoom struck, Medicham outstretched its arms and grabbed him by the horns. Medicham swung Houndoom around, and around, up into the air, finally bringing him straight down and slamming him into the ground, cracking the earth beneath him.

"Houndoom, no!"

But it was too late. Houndoom was knocked completely unconscious. I took out his ball and called him back. It was down to either Kirlia or Umbreon. I didn't know who to use. Umbreon had more power, but was a dark type, so she'd be at a big disadvantage to Medicham's fighting moves. Kirlia, on the other hand, had very low defenses, and would also be at a hefty disadvantage. I made up my mind quickly.

"Umbreon, lets go!"

I heard gasps of surprise from behind me. "Joe!" cried out Frank. "Don't send out Umbreon, she's just as weak to fighting moves as Houndoom was!"

I took out Umbreon's ball and tossed her out. When she came out of her ball, she took a defensive stance straight away. Mark saw her, and burst out into laughter. "Joe, you've given me the easiest battle of the last couple months. Medicham, hit her with brick break!"

"Umbreon, use shadow ball!"

When Medicham jumped up into the air, Umbreon took aim and began to charge up the ball of energy. On his way down, Medicham lifted back not his arm, but his head. He was going to use his head for the attack. When he was only a couple of feet away, Umbreon fired the ball, striking Medicham straight in the chest, and dropping him to the ground just a few feet away.

"Umbreon, hit him with faint attack while he's down!"

Umbreon dashed at Medicham so quickly that she seemed to disappear. Medicham tried to get up, but by the time he was able to stand on his feet, Umbreon struck him in the stomach, knocking him back down. Medicham tried to get up again, but Umbreon blasted him with another shadow ball, sending him flying back to Mark's feet. Unable to get back up, Mark put Medicham back into his ball.

"Not bad Joe, not bad," he said, "but there's no way that you're going to beat my last pokemon! Poliwrath, lets go!"

Out of his last poke ball came a large pokemon that looked like a blue frog with fists. Two eyes came up on the top of its head, and there was a large black spiral on its belly. Just looking at it made me get dizzy for a couple of seconds.

"Poliwrath, use hypnosis!"

Poliwrath stood still and began to stare at Umbreon. The spiral on his belly began to spin around and around. I called to Umbreon to close her eyes and not look, but she'd already been hypnotized by the spiral. She stood still, dumbfounded, and didn't move at all.

"Now Poliwrath, hit her with a dynamic punch!"

Poliwrath's right fist began to glow a brilliant white, and he dashed towards Umbreon, fist cocked back. I once again shouted for her to move out of the way, but she was still under hypnosis. When she finally snapped out of it, it was too late. Poliwrath's fist connected, and a bright white flash overtook the entire area. The punch was so hard that it send Umbreon flying all the way back to where everyone else was sitting. She crashed into Alice, knocking her back. I ran over to where they were, first picking up Umbreon, then Alice.

"Alice, are you okay?" I asked her. She seemed shaken, but she didn't look like she was hurt too badly.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Joe. What about Umbreon?" She had a look of worry and sadness on her face as she reached down and ran her hand along Umbreon's side.

Umbreon opened her eyes, and tried to move, but the pain was too great, so she just laid there in my arms. "Umbreon," I said, "you were amazing out there. I'm so proud of you, that was great. Go ahead and rest, okay?" I put her back into her poke ball, gave Alice a tight hug to comfort her, and walked back over to Mark.

I held out my hand for him to shake. "Dude, that was a great battle. Your Poliwrath is super strong, you must have had him for a really long time." After a couple seconds, I figured he wasn't going to shake my hand, so I pulled it back.

"Yeah," he said, "I've been raising Poliwrath since he was just a tiny little Poliwag. Now I'm going to head out to Petalburg city and take down that Brandon kid. His normal type pokemon will be no match for my epic fighters! Catch you later, loser!" He jumped up on a Rapidash and they rode off.

Alice, Steph, and the others came up to me, as well as Carolina. I turned to face her. "Carolina, no offence, but you're brother is a bit of a jerk."

She laughed, and smiled. "You think he was bad there? Try living with him for your entire life. But, he is my brother, and I love him, so I guess he's not all that bad. Anyways, I thought you did great, Joe. You should probably take your pokemon to the pokemon center." She turned to Steph, and said "We can talk more about pokemon contests there, and I can get you registered for the Hoenn contest circuit."

Steph smiled at her, and the six of us headed off for the pokemon center.


	19. The Contest Part 1

_Author's note: Okay everyone, hopefully you enjoy this chapter, because I won't have the second part of it up for another three weeks! I'm going to be on a trip in Europe, so when I get back I'll definitely write the next chapter. But I think this one might be a three-part deal, so everyone have a fun summer until then, okay? Thanks for reading, everyone! - xjoedirtx_

"Okay Marshtomp, use water gun!"

Marshtomp reared up and fired a jet of water from its mouth. The stream shot up into the air. When it reached its maximum height, the stream burst, sending droplets of water falling back down to the ground, and sparkling.

Alice and I were sitting nearby, and we watched as the droplets came back down, but we didn't move quickly enough, and we got drenched. Steph apologized, and Alex called her back.

Steph and Alex were training for the upcoming Sandbreak town pokemon contest. Steph and I both signed up earlier that day, and got our contest passes. The contest would be held the next day, but there was just one problem: we didn't know the first thing about contest battling. Alex agreed to help Steph get ready, and Carolina said that she would help me once she came back from town with some more supplies.

"Remember Steph," said Alex, "this isn't like a normal pokemon battle. You need to show off your pokemon's power, yes. But you have to do it in a way that makes your pokemon also look beautiful and appealing."

Steph nodded. "Okay, I think I know what you mean. Marshtomp, try water gun one more time, but when its in the air, use a mud shot!"

"Marsh, Tomp!" Marshtomp lifted his head into the air again, and fired another jet of water straight up. This time, however, he quickly followed up with a mud shot, which split the stream up the middle, and brought back down more sparkling droplets. Also included were globules of mud, which, luckily for us, all landed around Marshtomp.

Alex lightly laughed, then applauded. "Good work, Steph. It wasn't perfect, but at least you didn't dirty up the audience." she waved her arm at us, signaling that we were still dry and clean.

"Hey guys, I'm back!" Carolina shouted as she ran towards us with a small duffel bag in hand. "You won't believe what I found, Alex, and at such a low price, I was able to get two!"

Alex and Steph came walking towards us, with Marshtomp closely following. Carolina put her hand in the bag, and produced two small, rectangle-like plastic cases with what looked like poke balls at one end. She handed one to me, and one to Steph. "I got some poke block cases for you guys! You're going to need them for the upcoming contest."

I looked the case over twice, then said "Um, Carolina, what exactly are these for, and whats a poke block?"

She laughed, then answered "Poke block are little cubes that you make by mixing crushed up berries in a blender. You feed them to your pokemon, and it enhances their appealing characteristics, depending on the color and the feel of the block, of course. You store them in the poke block case for later use. Certain pokemon like certain colors of block, though, so you might want to figure out what your pokemon likes before making some."

Steph spoke next. "Okay, but how do we know what color of block the berries will make? And where do we make them?"

Alex answered her question. "Most pokemon coordinators have a poke gear that can help them find out the qualities of the berries. You guys can use mine, for now, but I suggest getting one. Also, I have one of the specialized blenders in my house, and a few berry trees out past the Rapidash pens, so we can blend some poke block right now, if you want!"

I reached into one of the pockets on my backpack and took our the poke gear I'd gotten from Mr. Stone back in Devon Co. "Alex, can you do that with any poke gear, or specialized kinds?"

She smiled, and replied "Actually, Joe, I think yours will work just fine. Here, let me see it real quick."

She took my poke gear, and fiddled around with it for a few seconds. A few beeps and clicks later, she handed it back to me. "Here, I set the program for you to use it. Just grab a berry and hold it up to the scanner on the back of the gear. Come on Steph, lets go inside and mix some poke block!"

I took out a rawst berry from my bag, and scanned it. The poke gear said that the berry was somewhat bitter. I took out another three, and brought out my pokemon. I decided to see which of them liked bitter berries.

I gave my first one to Umbreon. She ate it, then shut her eyes and tightened her lips, then spit it out. Obviously Umbreon didn't like them. I put the other three out, and Houndoom, Scizor, and Kirlia each ate one. Houndoom ate his, but he didn't look like he was really interested in it. Scizor ate his, but then spit it out just like Umbreon did. Kirlia, however, quickly gobbled hers down, and began smiling blissfully. I took another one out of my bag, and she ate it quickly as well. I called the others back into their poke balls. "Well Kirlia," I said, "looks like you're going to be in your first pokemon contest tomorrow. Lets get trained up, and do great, okay!"

She looked up at me, chirped out "Kirlia!", and twirled around with her hands up in the air, like a ballerina. Alice began laughing, and I looked over at her. She met my gaze, smiled, and began walking over to where Kirlia and I were standing.

"Hey," she said softly, " I'm sorry I got so mad at you yesterday. It was childish of me to get like that, and I'm so sorry, Joe."

"Apology accepted," I said, as I embraced her and kissed her on the forehead. "But, if you don't mind me asking, why are you so jealous of me and Alex? I already told you, we're just friends. She fell off the bed on accident, its not like she was trying to."

"I know, I know, and I'm sorry. I just don't want to have the same thing that happened with Stephen happen with you. You mean a lot more to me than that, you know that right?"

I nodded, then kissed her gently. Carolina came out of the house, and I gently laid my forehead on Alice's. "Alice, Kirlia and I need to go practice for the contest tomorrow, okay?"

"Yeah, okay," she said with a smile. "I'll be cheering for you guys. I'm gonna go inside with Steph and Carolina, okay? See you later!" She turned around and ran into the house, with a bounce in her step that for some reason made me feel really good inside.

I turned to Carolina, who were now standing to my left. "Alright guys, lets get this started. How should I do this, and what should I do, anyways?"

"Kir, Kir, Kirlia Kirlia!" shouted Kirlia, happily. Carolina smiled and knelt down, rubbing her hand on the side of Kirlia's head.

"Calm down, cutie," she said. "You'll get started soon enough." She stood back up and faced me. "Okay Joe, now for the basics. First, the whole point of pokemon contests is to display your pokemon's power, but to do it in an appealing and beautiful fashion. There are three judges, and they'll be determining how your well your pokemon does based on three factors. First, how the pokemon looks." She took out her poke block case and popped one out. "Pokeblock alter your pokemon's appearance, based on their color, and type. Second, is what moves they use, and how they use them. Like I said earlier, this isn't your typical pokemon battle. You need to train your pokemon to use the moves in a way that showcases beauty AND power." She took out a poke ball, and called out Manectric.

"Manectric, thunder!"

Manectric began to charge sparks up its fur, then howled, and a gigantic bolt of lightning shot up into the sky. Then, the bolt slowly began to condense into a ball of energy. Under so much pressure, the ball exploded, sending beautiful sparks out into the air around it. Manectric then stood with all four legs rod-straight, and stuck his nose up in the air, making himself look like a lightning rod. Sure enough, the sparks shot down, and channeled through his nose, down to his feet, and into the ground, electrifying it.

"Wow," I said in awe, "that was amazing!"

Carolina smiled, and chuckled. "Are you kidding? That was nothing, Joe. Wait until you see combination moves, that's what really gets you the points in contests, but we'll get to those later. Next, the third way you're judged: variety of different moves, and mastery. The judges will be looking for you to use a variety of moves, and be able to pull them off without failing. You get points docked from using the same move over and over again, and you also lose points if your pokemon messes up. You get serious point deductions if they trip up, too, so make sure you know what you're going to do."

"Alright," I rendered. "What else?"

"Well, that's pretty much it. Oh, wait, I almost forgot about the battle round!"

"Battle round" I asked.

"Yeah, the battle round. It's the second round of the contest! After the judges make their decisions in the first two rounds, they choose the best eight coordinators, and they move on to the final round. Its pretty much the same thing as the appeal round, in that you're trying to make your moves look as beautiful as possible, but just in a battle situation. You lose points for taking damage, or messing up an attack, but so does your opponent if they do the same. Whoever has the most points at the end of the five minute time limit is the winner. Now that that's cleared up, are you ready to practice?"

I nodded. "Okay, I think I'm ready to try out some appeals. Kirlia, are you ready?" I looked down at her.

"Kirlia!"

"Okay, lets go! Kirlia, use magical leaf!"

Kirlia stood up straight, both legs straight under her body, and arms out to the sides. Her eyes began to glow a faint greenish-blue, and a dozen leaves began to materialize around her. She launched them up in the air, and they all drove into each other, for the most part. The ones that didn't fell back down to the ground, and barely missed hitting myself and Carolina. Kirlia looked at us and began scratching the back of her head, a look of apology on her face.

"Haha, that's okay, Kirlia," I said while picking myself up off of the ground. "You'll get it next time, don't worry."

Carolina smiled, and cried out "Wow Joe, that was great. Almost perfect, but Kirlia lost a bit of control there at the end. I think its time for you two to learn about combinations. Manectric, use thunder straight ahead of you and condense it into a ball!"

"Man!" shouted Manectric. He charged up his fur again, and shot an intense bolt of electricity directly in front of him. When it was about fifteen feet out, it stopped, and began to crunch down into a ball.

"Now Manectric, use shock wave to create a barrier around it!"

Manectric pulled its head back in a circular motion, then pushed it forward, sending out a wide wave of electricity. When it hit the ball, the wave wrapped around its sides, and began to spin around it.

"Okay Manectric, now finish with spark on the ball!"

Manectric charged electricity through its fur, with sparks jumping off every couple of seconds. Then it crouched back and began to charge at the ball, tearing through the shock wave barrier, and striking the ball dead center. It exploded, showering sparks everywhere and bathing the area in a beautiful yellow light.

"Amazing," I whispered, awe-struck. When I snapped out of my reverie, I looked down at Kirlia, and she looked up at me. "Kirlia, you ready to try a combination? I've got a great idea for one!"

"Kirlia!"

"Okay Kirlia, use magical leaf!"

Kirlia conjured up a dozen leaves around her. The faint bluish-green light that they emanated lit up the ground around them. She raised her arms and shot them into the air.

"Okay Kirlia, now use psychic to hold them in place!"

Kirlia held her arms out to her sides again. She began to glow a light shade of purple, and so did the leaves up in the air. So far, the move was working perfectly. Now just for the finale.

"Kirlia, use psybeam!"

Kirlia picked her head up and looked straight up at the leaves, then fired a purple beam of light from her forehead. The beam shot straight up and stopped between the leaves. Just like with Manectric's thunder, she packed the beam down into a ball, and the leaves began to circle it.

"Okay, now finish it with magical leaf!"

"Kirlia, Kir!"

Kirlia closed her hands together, causing the leaves to drift into the ball. Upon contact, it exploded in a burst of dazzling colors. Green, blue, and purple rays of light shot out from the explosion. They spun around and around, finally fading after a few seconds. Kirlia, tired from the technique, sighed, smiled, and sat down cross-legged.

"Haha, Kirlia, that was amazing!" I shouted. "You did great! With a little bit more practice, we might just win that contest tomorrow! But first, you can go ahead and take a little break, you deserve it." I took out her poke ball, and called her back into it.

"Joe, that was great," Carolina shouted. "Kirlia did great with that combination. A little more practice, and she'll have it perfect. I think you should go inside with us for the time being and make some poke block. Kirlia looks great as she is, but some of these coordinator's pokemon are going to be really amazing, and you'll need every edge you can get!"

I nodded. "Okay, lets go make some poke block."

_The next day…_

"Good afternoon, and welcome to the Sandbreak town pokemon contest!"

The announcer, a pretty woman in her twenties named Vivian, stood in the middle of the contest hall stage, running through the rules and rounds of the pokemon contest to the crowd. In the stands were at least a couple hundred people. They were cheering and shouting so loud, Steph, Alex, Carolina and I could hear them from all the way back in the preparation room.

As I fed Kirlia another poke block, a girl walked up to us and sat down on the bench next to me.

"Hey, is that your Kirlia?" she asked.

I looked up at her. "Um, yeah, she's mine. This is our first pokemon contest, really, so I want her to do great so we can win it!"

The girl laughed. She was short, with dark brown skin and black hair. "If you think you're gonna win your first contest, then you must DEFINITELY be a rookie coordinator. It took me three tries to win my first ribbon." She took out a small black case and opened it, showing the two ribbons inside of it. My Arcanine is gonna win the hyper rank contest today, and get our third ribbon! I'm Valerie, what your name"

"I'm Joe! I've never seen an Arcanine before, can you show me?" I looked down at the poke ball attached to her belt.

She laughed, and stood up. "Sorry Joe, not right now. You're gonna have to wait for my appeals to get a glimpse."

Disappointed, I smiled at her. "Alright them, Valerie, good luck in the contest, then!"

She stood up. "And the same to you, Joe. I've gotta go do a couple last minute preparations, but I'll be watching your appeals on the screens here in the prep room." She walked off towards the girls dressing room.

Alex, Steph, and Carolina came out as she walked in. They came over to me, and wished me luck. "Well Joe, Carolina and I will be watching your guys' appeals, so don't mess up." Alex asserted.

Surprised, Steph asked "Wait, so you're not going to compete?"

Carolina and Alex laughed, and Alex answered "Yeah, we're competing, but we're in the super rank contest. It goes by ranks. Normal first, then super, hyper, and finally master rank matches. Once the top eight in each rank have been decided, the cycle repeats, with normal rank battles first, and master rank battles last. The same goes for the final matches. We'll be watching your guys performances, okay?"

Steph and I nodded, and went to the staging area. A few minutes later, they called my name out to go for the appearance and performance round. Steph wished me good luck, and I wished her back. I stepped out from the curtains and walked out to the center of the arena.

"And now, from Fresno, Joe!"

I took out Kirlia's poke ball, and tossed it. "Kirlia, lets go, come on out!"

Kirlia popped out of her ball, and stood up with both legs straight under her. She put one arm in front of her body, then bowed towards the crowd. Everyone started shouting and cheering, and Kirlia just loved it.

"Kirlia!"

I smiled. "Okay Kirlia, lets do this! Magical leaf, then psychic!"

Kirlia stood still, and began to glow that same shade of bluish green. Suddenly, twelve leaves with the same glow appeared around her. She launched them up into the air, and used psychic to hold them in place. The crowd began to cheer and holler.

"Alright Kirlia, now psybeam!"

Kirlia fired a purple beam up into the air, stopping it by the leaves, and crunching it down into a ball. The leaves began to circle around the ball. Finally, Kirlia used psychic to draw the leaves into the ball, which then exploded. Just like before, the ball exploded with the array of lights and sparks. This time, instead of falling down, Kirlia stood still, then did a bow just like when she came out. The crowd roared with excitement, and the judges looked pleased.

The announcer came back up from the side where she was standing, and said into her microphone "And that was Joe and Kirlia! Joe, please return to the prep room and wait for the end of the first round. You'll be told after the rest of the appeals whether you've advanced to the next round or not. Thank you for competing!"

As Kirlia and I walked back to the curtains, I waved out to the crowd, and she did little curtsies and bows on the way. Steph, who was up next, gave me a quick hug and walked out of the curtains. When I got back to the prep room, I sat next to Alex and Carolina on one of the benches and watched Steph on the monitors.

She sent out Marshtomp for his appeal, and the crowd started shouting and cheering for them.

"Okay Marshtomp," she shouted, "time to appeal! Create a wall around you with mud shot!"

Marshtomp spit out huge globs of mud around him in a circle. Once there was a barrier around him, he stopped.

"Marshtomp, use bubble beam up into the air!"

Marshtomp put his head back and blasted a group of bubbles up into the air, and controlled them to stay in the same place.

"Now Marshtomp, use mud slap to kick the wall up into the air and burst the bubbles!"

Marshtomp ran around the circle, kicking up lumps of mud into the air and aiming them at the bubbles. Upon contact, the bubbles burst, sending sparkling droplets of water down around Marshtomp. The crowd saw this and roared in excitement. They loved it!

After Vivian gave Steph the same talk she'd given me, she came back to the prep area where Alex, Carolina, and myself were waiting. I ran up to her and gave her a tight hug.

"Steph, that was amazing! Marshtomp's move worked together flawlessly, I know you're gonna be in the next round, that was too great for you to not be!"

"Yeah, that was great!" Alex and Carolina spoke at the same time. They looked at each other and laughed at that. Carolina spoke next. "I loved how Marshtomp blended ground and water move together almost perfectly." Now it was Alex's turn. "Yeah, that was pretty cool. I can see that the extra practice you guys put into it last night really payed off. You too, Joe!"

Steph blushed, and said "Aw, thank you guys! But I think Joe did better, Kirlia's moves were really complex, and she pulled them off almost effortlessly."

I shook my head. "No, Steph, your moves were way better."

"Regardless of who did better," came a voice from behind us, "both of you were great, especially for first timers." We turned around, and saw Valerie standing in the doorway. "I liked your appeals. I hope you two make it to the next round. I'd really like to see how those moves work in combat."

Before we could get off a "thank you," she walked out of the room.

A few minutes later, the normal rank appeals were done, and it was time for Alex and Carolina to get ready for the super rank appeals. I couldn't wait to see them perform.


End file.
